


Off the Radar

by Żeni (JD_Centric)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alcohol, Blow Jobs, Breakups, Cheating, Clubbing, Coming Out, Drinking, F/M, First Time, Foursome - F/M/M/M, Hair-pulling, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Recovery, Recreational Drug Use, Rough Sex, Sex, Smoking, Unsafe Sex, clubs, heartbreaks, use of human names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:01:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25713220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JD_Centric/pseuds/%C5%BBeni
Summary: //Work out more, that’s what Aleks had to start doing, that was the best way to get over a crush. The other best way was with alcohol, that wasn’t questionable.//Four horrible heartbreaks happen in one Friday evening to four people who would better have nothing to do with each other until they actually do, at least for the night.
Relationships: Bulgaria (Hetalia)/Serbia (Hetalia), Bulgaria/Hungary (Hetalia), Bulgaria/Romania (Hetalia), Bulgaria/Romania/Hungary/Slovakia, Czech Republic/Slovakia (Hetalia), Hungary/Prussia (Hetalia), Hungary/Romania (Hetalia), Hungary/Slovakia, Norway/Romania (Hetalia)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	1. S.O.S

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this will be something short and sweet I had to waste my time with while procrastinating with the editing of my multi-chapter fic :D the idea was just too fun to pass up on and I know the characters are hella side ones right now in the fandom so I don't know how much recognition this story will get but it was really fun to do and there's still a part two to be up soon, so I want to get it out there. I'm seriously in love with Czech and Slovakia and their dynamic, I was waiting for them for years! This little thing was inspired by a very cute drawing on Tumblr of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, that's why he's here though I originally thought of sticking just to the threesome (though canonically and historically his relationship to Hungary should be similar to Romania's). Then, of course, this very much turned into a songfic again, courtesy to Lidia and Dessita's GPS - I just might be the only Hetalia author in this part of the fandom writing pop-folk fanfiction. You can imagine this story happening anywhere, I just so happen to imagine everything in Bulgaria just to be as accurate as possible but that's not necessary, I'm pretty sure they have clubs in Slovakia and Hungary too.
> 
> Never mind though, whatever I've missed to say here, you can always ask me in the comments! c: Critique and polite reviews are always encouraged too! See you in the next part and for those of you coming from 'The Berlin Trial' - chapter five is done and waiting to be published most likely tomorrow! <33 Stay safe guys and enjoy!

It was Friday night and Erzsébet had just broken up with her boyfriend.

Well, that wasn’t true. He wasn’t aware that they were done for but she guessed that she had made it clear enough that they weren’t together anymore when she pushed him out of the door and then proceeded to throw anything of his she could get her hands on out the window, hoping to hit him or his car at least. Gilbert, seeing what she was doing, could only curse at her from below, threatening to go right back up if she didn’t stop.

Erzsébet didn’t but Gilbert didn’t come back either. He warned her that he would be back later to talk again when she was calmer, got in his car and left – left to hang out with his friends, not caring if Erzsébet needed him home and clueless of the fact that today was supposed to be their anniversary.

Three years. Thankfully, there wouldn’t be a fourth, Erzsébet promised herself.

Things had been going badly for them for months. Gilbert’s excuse was that she worked too much, studied the rest of the time to secure her place in school, but Erzsébet thought that wasn’t their only problem. A colleague of Gilbert’s at the university and their mutual friend had told her, in secret, that he might have been seeing someone else for a few weeks now.

Whatever the reason was, Erzsébet felt horrible. This was by far her first breakup but it was surely the worst, even if Gilbert had been a jerk from the beginning. Well, a jerk in certain aspects, he had been surprisingly devoted to what they had – _had_ had – and had always kept his promises to change and improve after the few fights they had had. The truth was that Erzsébet had grown used to him, she had grown used to _them_ , and she had loved them and the thought of what they could be.

Brushing away the tears, she reminded herself that if she kept thinking that way, she would end up forgiving Gilbert when he came back, something she knew wasn’t good at all if he would just keep on acting so neglectful. Some things were better left in the past while it was time.

She cried, Gilbert’s cursing and excuses before he left on her mind, until there were no more tears left. Then Erzsébet made herself think again, with her head this time – was there a reason to cry over something she had seen coming? No, of course. Was she lucky that she had been the one to show Gilbert the door before he could make a fool of her – maybe yes.

Erzsébet felt her phone vibrate and saw its screen lighting up just as she heard the sound notifying her that she had gotten a new message.

Though not in the mood to talk to anyone – she didn’t even think Gilbert might have been texting her to apologize – but also curious to see who had thought of her this late, Erzsébet sat up on the couch and, brushing her nose with the back of her hand, reached for her phone with the other. Somebody had sent a message to the group chat and when she unlocked her phone and opened Messenger, a new reply popped up.

Erzsébet sniffled while she read. The first message was sent from _Alex B_., meaning Aleksander, while the reply had come from _Tomislav_ , meaning Tomáš. Aleks was asking if any of them were up to go out. It was odd, Erzsébet supposed, since neither of them usually went out with each other unless it concerned university work, classes or projects, that was one of the reasons they had actually made the group chat. Outside of school, they were barely even friends.

Tomáš had replied that he was up for it and after a minute added that he had just broken up with his girlfriend. Actually, he guessed they were done for at least.

That surprised Erzsébet, not only because it almost entirely mimicked her situation with Gilbert, but because Tomáš and Hedvika had always made the impression of being made for each other. As high school sweethearts, they had been together for years already and many people guessed they would stay together after university too. Others, like Aleksander, had predicted that they would soon find a reason to break up and that things in such a long relationship with no spark at all couldn’t be so pink. Obviously, they hadn’t been.

In fact, things had long stopped being pink between Tomáš and Hedvika and they were mostly together because they had nobody better to be with, the thought of being alone after so long intimidating them both.

But their relationship was far from the one it had been in high school, that was for sure – they were both about ready to finally get a divorce. Tomáš had never wanted to be the first to point out the necessity of it, mostly because Hedvika, always stubborn, had refused to even acknowledge the problem whenever he tried to speak to her about it. For the past year, they had fought more often than not and Tomáš could see how irritated she would get even if they were in the same room as the other, doing nothing but simply being there.

Tomáš, having been raised a gentleman, had tolerated each and every one of Hedvika’s wishes and childish demands and had never refused her. In their little pre-marital relationship, he was surely a doormat of a man. His friends made fun of him for it and he would’ve laughed at himself too, if he didn’t feel so miserable.

The final drop fell in his glass, unfortunately, almost at the same time as Erzsébet was shutting the door on her now ex-boyfriend.

“Where are you making yourself so fancy for?” Tomáš asked her when he noticed Hedvika fixing her makeup in the hallway mirror. In one hand he held a big bowl of fresh popcorn and in the other the TV remote, ready to turn to channel three where the final episode of Strawberry Moon would be on. While Tomáš was ready to have the peaceful movie evening – with, perhaps, a sexy follow-up in the bedroom – that Hedvika had promised him, she seemed to be getting ready for something else.

“I told you I was going out today,” she said, matter-of-factly, frowning when she saw him still in sweats and a tee-shirt. “Why aren’t you getting ready?”

“What do you mean? We were supposed to stay in tonight…”

“No, that’s what you said. I told you I would think about it and then I said that I made plans to go out and you could join if you want to.”

Tomáš frowned and tried to argue that he hadn’t agreed to such a thing but Hedvika paid him little attention, too busy looking herself in the mirror. She did look good but what bothered Tomáš was that she clearly hadn’t done her hair for him.

“I don’t know what you’re so angry about,” Hedvika all but exclaimed when Tomáš pointed that small fact out. “I invited you to come, you obviously don’t want to!”

“Because I thought that this Friday at least we could stay in and act just a little bit like a couple!” Tomáš snapped, raising his voice. He had realized, after so many fights, that that was the only way Hedvika could understand him sometimes – she was, after all, and apparently, going deaf. “Like the couple we’re supposed to be, unless you’ve forgotten about that.”

“Don’t even start being dramatic with me, Tomanek,” Hedvika warned.

“It’s not drama, it’s the truth.”

“Oh, fuck off, why don’t you!”

“You know what,” Tomáš began threateningly before stopping himself. He really didn’t want to be having this conversation. “Who are you going out with?”

“Friends,” Hedvika replied, this time with irritation.

“Do I know them?”

“Are you my dad? Grow up, Tomanek.”

But Tomáš was bitter. He had never been an overly protective or jealous boyfriend but Hedvika had always treated him with much more respect, paid him attention and did things with him. It had been the opposite lately – they barely even talked, even at home. It was Hedvika who had to grow up.

“You’re not going out tonight,” Tomáš said, setting the popcorn and remote on the table.

Hedvika merely looked at him funny, “Who says?”

“I say, your boyfriend. We’re going to stay at home and watch a movie like a normal couple while we both have time to do it…”

“Don’t command me, Tomáš! You can’t tell me what to do, what’s wrong with you?”

“I asked you for one thing! All I wanted was to spend time together, because…”

“We’ll spend time together next time, I have plans!”

“…because you’ve been ignoring us for the past months and it’s insane!”

“We can’t always be stuck at the hip!”

“Wanting to spend an hour with you is not being stuck at the hip, just look at what we’re arguing about, Hedviko, are you even listening to me?!”

“We’ll talk when I come back,” Hedvika told him, too busy putting on her shoes to even look at him.

She was already halfway out of the door when Tomáš ran into the hall.

“Fine!” He yelled after her as his girlfriend disappeared down the stairs, “Be that way! But we’re done for, do you hear! Don’t you even come back!”

Barely realizing what he had just said, Tomáš shut the door and returned to the living room where he sat down on the couch and for the next few minutes stared at the black screen of the TV and his matted reflection. He was bitter – not only that, he felt alone for the first time ever. Never having felt the hurt of a breakup, Tomáš had no idea what had to happen now. Should they talk later? Should he apologize and end things reasonably? Not like there was any way to reason with Hedvika, she had always had one hell of an ego, especially where it concerned him. In her mind, Tomáš owed her for her time, if anything.

The popcorn was already cold and Hedvika had just spoiled the finale of Strawberry Moon for him. Just as Tomáš was thinking of an angry tirade to text her, to blame her for her incompetence as a girlfriend, his phone suddenly vibrated. The sound of the notification was so loud that it startled him out of his thoughts.

It must be Hedvika, he thought, quickly reaching for his phone. She had realized her mistake and was blaming him for everything, again, though that was her way of apologizing and asking him to just move on. But it wasn’t Hedvika, to Tomáš’ disappointment.

It was a message in the group chat he rarely used whenever it didn’t concern school. With Vlad and Aleks he liked to talk but he didn’t enjoy the thought of Erzsébet reading their personal texts. Knowing that Vlad felt the same and Aleks was rather ignorant to the fact, it surprised him to see a text from him pop up on the screen. He would’ve thought his friend had mistaken the chat but judging by the text’s content, he hadn’t.

He was asking them if anyone was up to go out tonight.

Quickly, maybe far too quickly, Tomáš typed a reply – sure, he was up for it. He was still furious at Hedvika, couldn’t get her out of his mind. If he could get it back at her, he would. He knew she would care – Hedvika had always been rather protective.

He wasn’t sure what possessed him to add the next bit though.

_I just broke up with my girlfriend, at least I guess we broke up._

Maybe he was making a mistake, nothing was official yet, but there was no use fooling himself. They could’ve broken up months ago and Hedvika would’ve cared only because she thought of Tomáš as hers to have.

Almost immediately another reply came, this time from Erzsébet – she too had just broken up with her boyfriend. Tomáš couldn’t help but wonder at the coincidence. It was a shame, of course, but he didn’t like Erzsébet enough to say he was sorry.

Then again almost immediately came a text from Aleks.

_I guess I’m single now too, welcome to the club_.

But despite the laughing emoji following that short text, Aleksander was miles away from feeling either relief or joy or even a small bit of happiness that should’ve come from having ended a relationship as toxic as the one he had been bothering himself with the past few months under the noses of his friends. He was sure that if Vladimir saw these messages, which he would undoubtedly do, he would be very angry to learn that Aleks had not only slept once with Vuk – a thing he had called a one-time accident – but had repeated it twice, thrice and had been repeating it every week for five months now.

He had slept with Vuk out of spite the very first time – to prove to himself that the Serb was trash and also to prove to his sister, who had been pining after him at the time, he was trash, but in the end, all Aleks had proven was that he himself belonged at the bottom of the bin. He felt a similar way too, like a tissue drenched in snot and crumbled under a pile of fruit peels and rotten vegetables.

He closed the group chat and opened his private chat with Vuk. He had been hoping to see each other tonight. Aleks wasn’t a fan of dates, he felt too awkward taking girls or guys out on walks or to dinner – he’d prefer someone else take him out. That’s why he felt so comfortable going out with Vuk – a date for the two of them meant a night out clubbing, with company or without, getting wasted and, after throwing up by the bushes in the park or at Vuk’s, having sex. That was a rather polite word for what they had but it described it well enough.

They were friends with benefits and after Aleksander, Vuk quickly lost interest in Tatjana. Aleks, who still had to live with her until he got lucky enough to win the lottery, buy a house on the seaside and move out, had to stand her whining and crying and constant blaming, though she couldn’t know of the way her brother had stolen her almost-boyfriend.

Aleks realized the hard way though that Vuk had never been boyfriend material and he was reminded of it again when he read their conversation, for the fifth time in ten minutes.

It had all started with him asking Vuk if they were going to hang out that night – he had sent that around lunch and Vuk had replied just a few minutes ago, as was his habit. He was going to go out with someone else and, swallowing the small bit of jealousy he felt, Aleksander had asked him with who.

A girlfriend, Vuk had replied, almost immediately. He had seen it coming, they had never even had the other kind of talk – the one that made it clear what they were exactly. Apparently, while Aleks had counted himself taken or in the process of getting an actual boyfriend, Vuk had never considered him as anything more than company when he didn’t have anyone to go out with. Karma was a horrible thing, Aleksander certainly felt like it was back to bite him for all the times he had ghosted random girls on Facebook after one night stands.

He wasn’t sure why he felt so horrible but he did and he told Vuk that. He asked him if they would keep on talking if Vuk suddenly found a girlfriend – Vuk told him that it would be better to stop seeing each other even if he didn’t. When asked why, he just said that hiding behind the club for blowjobs or getting it on in the car had been fun but he was getting bored – not of the sex, that was left unsaid, he was getting bored of Aleks. Maybe because he was feeling how attached and clingy Aleksander was getting, that was usually the moment when you either got rid of the person or made it official.

When both sides wanted different things, that’s when it got complicated.

Work out more, that’s what Aleks had to start doing, that was the best way to get over a crush. The other best way was with alcohol, that wasn’t questionable. He actually tried texting a few other friends, Vlad included though he hadn’t seen the message yet, if they wanted to go out but with exam season nearing even the most renown partiers in his friend circle had better things to do. Some of those had their girlfriends on their mind when they said that, of course. That made Aleks feel slightly worse.

His dad was yelling at Tatjana to turn down the music from the other room – which was sad since he was actually listening too, one bad apple didn’t mean Aleks would start hating Mile Kitić – when Aleks decided to write in the group chat. He didn’t do that too often but that didn’t mean anything. Vladimir was in the chat too, he at least would be up to go out. Aleks had nothing against Erzsébet and Tomáš either, he actually loved Tomi, he was a great guy. The problem was that neither Vlad nor Tomáš liked Erzsébet and Aleks felt that he could use the company of a pretty girl tonight. He knew she had a thing with Gilbert – who he studied in the same group with – but maybe he could boost his ego a bit. There had to be a reason why Hungarians were the best porn stars and Gilbert just wouldn’t tell what the hype was really about (the thought that they hadn’t had sex for the past six months crossed nobody’s mind).

If nobody answers in five minutes, Aleks promised himself, I’ll go hang out with dad or play WOW till morning. But he got a reply far quicker than he had hoped to. His jaw nearly dropped when he read it – Tomi had just broken up with Hedvika. He should probably start thinking of a career as a card reader, Aleks knew it would happen eventually and he almost knew the reason they had broken up.

He had just begun to type a reply, to tell him of the odd coincidence, when Erzsébet replied too – she had beat him to it, she guessed she had broken up with Gilbert too.

A new picture painted itself in Aleks’ mind and he felt that it should’ve been obvious. He didn’t like Hedvika too much personally, wouldn’t go as far as to spread rumours of course, but he couldn’t help but wonder if Gilbert had cheated on Erzsébet with her, of all people. Were the case different, Aleks would’ve applauded him but cheating on someone with the snobby Hedvika was, to him, bad taste.

He nearly laughed when he realised how dumb the situation was, it wasn’t every day that three people who were barely even friends became single at nearly the same time. Now if Vlad told him he had been having an affair under his nose for months that had just ended tragically, Aleks would be torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry.

But there was no such thing, at least not as serious. Vladimir replied nearly half an hour later, after a whole angry conversation between the three, each explaining their little predicament with the other two being oddly supportive, even if Tomáš and Ezsebet didn’t like each other much.

_Sorry_ , his text read, _I’m at my brother’s school watching a play_.

And then – _what the hell guys, I just found out my crush has a boyfriend in Denmark!_

Lukas had been his summer crush that year and all would’ve been amazing hadn’t he left two weeks later when his vacation ended.

Vlad had been working at the seaside that year like the one before with Aleks. So early in the season, the experience had been equally boring for both of them – while Vlad felt like a statue gathering dust on reception, Aleks drank juices and energy drinks by the pool. With no guests in sight for the remainder of the month, there was hardly anything interesting in being either a receptionist or a lifeguard.

Then one day he showed up, like a movie star, and Vlad had seen him enter the hotel and walk up to him almost in slow motion.

Lukas had been his name and he had come with his parents from Norway for a vacation. He had been their age, blonde, as tall as Vlad and not very talkative. He had been passive while his parents gave Vlad their passports to scan and he had, unfortunately, been all Vladimir had eyes for from day one.

All until day fourteen.

Aleks had quickly become a dedicated wingman – he had had nothing better to do. He had waited for Lukas to show up around the lobby bar or come down to the pool, though he didn’t appear to be the sun's greatest fan, before making up a reason to talk to him. Both were the same age and with nobody else by the pool to watch for, the conversation flowed easily.

Then he had introduced them and what happened after that felt to Vlad, unironically, pretty much like a fifth season of SKAM.

That day, after introducing them, Aleks had left Lukas to keep him company at the reception desk, winking at Vlad on the way out. Thankfully he and Lukas had quickly found out they actually had a lot of stuff in common to talk about, otherwise, it would’ve been awkward and Vladimir would’ve killed Aleksander when he went back to the room they shared after his shift.

They exchanged phone numbers, just in case – Lukas would be there two whole weeks, Vlad could show him around, if he was interested. And surprisingly, Lukas had been.

That would’ve easily been the best summer in his life if only Lukas hadn’t had to leave. Vladimir had cried to Aleks about it for a whole week after, blind to everything and everyone who tried to talk to him or, in some rare cases, flirt. Aleks, who had just gotten over his own first and last Russian summer crush, tried to be a good friend and hook him up with everyone and anyone but Vlad was inconsolable – he had only one thing on his mind and it had just left to go back to Norway.

Then one day, no more than a month later – Vladimir had just begun to grow out of his lovesickness – he got a message. The day had been a particularly bad one and Vlad had been unlucky enough to have the day shift on the busiest day of the summer. It was already half past eight when he managed to check his phone. Despite feeling much like a used rag, just seeing who the message was from had been enough to immediately charge him right up and Vladimir had nearly screamed with joy.

It had been Lukas and once they started chatting, they never stopped.

That is, until that evening. Or at least Vladimir thought that after such an awkward conversation Lukas would definitely not want to talk to him again. It surely was similar to a SKAM season alright, especially when, after Vlad finally gathered the courage to ask him if there could ever be something serious between them despite the distance, Lukas told him that he had a boyfriend, a very serious one and he had had that boyfriend for over a year.

That meant that while Vladimir was struggling with the butterflies in his stomach the whole summer, somebody else was greeting the most perfect man ever back home. He reached that late conclusion while he should’ve been watching his little brother’s show and he excused himself when he completely lost focus to go and get a breath of fresh air.

Lukas’ boyfriend apparently was a hunk – a far cry from Vladimir. He was blonde, blue-eyed, his shirts framed his lean muscles, Vlad couldn't get enough of the pictures Lukas showed him. Suddenly he felt very foolish comparing to someone like that.

He nearly called Aleks right away to tell him how awful it felt when he saw the numerous messages he had missed – all from Aleks and in the group chat they so rarely used. Vlad personally hated it, he hated everything that involved Erzsébet, but it seemed that a very heated conversation was happening that he had completely ignored while watching his brother’s thing and coming to grips that Lukas had always been taken.

Instead of reading the entire mess of words and exclamation marks, he asked Aleks what was going on in their private chat. The first thing he told him was that Tomáš had broken up with Hedvika – Vlad was surprised, and then that Gilbert had walked out on Erzsébet – Vlad was not surprised at all. Who could live with her?

_Sorry_ , he typed a reply to the at least a hundred other messages in the group chat, _I’m at my brother’s school watching a play._

And then without thinking much about it, still affected by his first ever heartbreak, he added – _what the hell guys, I just found out my crush has a boyfriend in Denmark!_

One thing was for certain – none of them had any reason to stay home alone that night and cry in their own little corner over their individual heartbreaks. Not when the alternative was going out and getting drunk, finding a one-night stand and getting back at all the Gilberts and Hedvikas, and Vuks and Lukases out there.

Vlad was immediately up for it and the rest of them had already made the plan – Aleks would pick them up with his car and if they got too drunk to drive, which they probably would, they’d leave it somewhere around the club and try their luck out with the public transport.

They left the chat for the next hour to get ready. Erzsébet tried to cover her puffy eyes with makeup and put on the tightest dress she had in her closet, one tight enough to make her curves stand out and short enough to show off every bit of her legs. Tomáš, in the meantime, tore whatever pictures he could find of himself and Hedvika before dressing up while Aleksander, back at home, ran his wet hands through his hair to make it settle in what had to be a careless fashion before popping a piece of mint bubble gum in his mouth, warning his dad that he wouldn’t be home tonight and walking out the door.

He called Vlad first to ask where he should pick him up from – he was obviously not going to go home first he wouldn’t have time. Aleks turned up the loudspeaker and left the phone on the dash while he drove to tell Vlad all that happened between him and Vuk for the past few months, hoping that Vlad hadn’t read that far up the conversation to learn on his own.

As he had guessed it, Vladimir was angry with him.

“I always tell you not to do something,” he nearly screamed at him for at least the fifth time when Aleks got to his brother’s school a few minutes later and opened the car door for him, “and you always do it and it happens just the way I told you it would! Good job, Aleks!”

“Okay, don’t yell at me,” Aleksander said, pulling out his little box of gum and offering it to Vlad, who took not one but two. “I’m sorry, you were right. I should’ve known though…”

He looked at Vladimir’s red face while he furiously chewed his gum and laughed.

“What?” Vlad exclaimed.

“Nothing, it’s just you’re all denim. Is this your club get up?”

“Well, sorry that you caught me kind of off guard! And what are you even talking about? Only girls get all dressed up for the club…”

“Just promise me to leave the jacket in the car. So…what’s going on with you and your summer crush? I thought we got over that back in August!”

On their way to Tomáš’s, Vlad told his best friend all there was to tell. Somehow he felt like his story was far less dramatic than his or Erzsébet, or Tomi’s, but Vlad had very little experience with relationships in general so it also hurt just the same.

“She’s going to turn me into a smoker!” Tomáš complained to them once he got into the car. The first thing he did after that was ask Aleksander for a cigarette since Vladimir didn’t smoke, not cigarettes at least.

“That’s going to be her last present to me,” he continued mumbling after taking a few angry puffs, “lung cancer!”

Erzsébet looked like any heterosexual man, closeted pervert or obvious lesbian’s wet dream when she walked out of her building a few minutes after Aleks called her to tell her they were waiting. Whenever they saw her at school she was usually sporty, wore comfortable tracksuits and flat shoes whenever they had to study and the rest of the times she was good in shorts or jeans and the regular tee shirt or tank top. Now though she seemed more naked than dressed, had done her hair, had actual heels on and her lips were shinier than ever.

“I give you a three out of ten,” Vlad said when Aleks actually complimented her, out of spite rather than actually meaning it.

“And is it allowed to rate you with negative numbers,” Erzsébet bit back. “You’re leaving the jacket in the car, right?”

They would’ve argued all night if they had the chance and, thankfully, Aleks turned up the music before they could even start. That night, they were all going deaf, blind and numb to everything and there would be no room for arguments.


	2. Tekelas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose we can call this part 2 :D And I also suppose that there will be a part 3 and a possible fourth one to kind of finish this small, series-like dedication to this romantic square. I really am enjoying this...polyamorous ship, let's call it that, it's really weird but also incredibly cute and something I'm having a lot of fun with! This part is really weird, it wasn't intentional, it turned to be rather messy, but it was inspired by a music video and I liked the idea of the bitter lovers sub-plot, but you'll see it for yourselves and I really hope that you'll leave a comment, tell me your thoughts, how you're liking or not liking the story and, yeah, offer some polite critique :)) Like I said, the next part will be the overly pornographic one, so for those of you who came just for that - all of you horny dogs <33 - I guess I lied to you, now you'll have to wait another three to twelve months :D

The best way to forget the past was to think in the present. But that was a problematic way of thinking, especially when the past was one life-time of experience that was harder to ignore than the present or even the future, which, couldn’t even be comprehended in its daunting eternity without the past there to support it.

So Erzsebet, she did not ignore the past and did not allow herself to live in the present, in fact, she relived the past with every passing moment she scrolled down her Instagram, with every other photo she saw of herself happy and of Gilbert with her, knowing that they would never be happy _together_ and despising him and herself for his infidelity and her own weakness.

“Why aren’t you dancing?” Someone’s voice called out and Erzsebet raised her head, locking her phone out of habit but this time out of shame, hiding the secret that she felt actually horrible and nowhere near ready to go out and pretend it would all be alright. “You still thinking about him?”

“No,” she lied, knowing that Aleksander would see right through it and he did, raising his brows with a knowing little grin making him seem somewhat cynical and careless.

“Do you think there’s still hope for you?”

“No,” it was no lie this time though it hurt Erzsebet to say so and it made her angry. They had had something good with each other and could’ve had something even better, hadn’t Gilbert made fun of her so cruelly, if he only knew.

The club was full, only a few minutes past twelve. Erzsebet quite disliked the generic music being played, began regretting not getting drunk at home in silence. Seeing so many couples dancing and kissing and touching each other made it much harder to accept that she was now single, the thought of finding someone to kiss and play with for the night barely crossed her mind – she wasn’t such a person.

“Well, I think then you need more alcohol, right?” Aleks said, raising his head to call the barman and order another round of drinks. “We’re in this thing together tonight, so I know how to make you feel better.”

Erzsebet scoffed, “Don’t talk like that.”

“I’m being friendly!”

She didn’t return his smile and Aleksander knew the banter had died down for good – Erzsebet was just too engulfed in her rectangle of memories and possibilities to care for his presence or anyone’s for that matter…

“This isn’t going to work,” she suddenly said, fingers tapping along the surface of the bar, itching to check her social media again as if she’d find anything newer.

Not sure if he understood or even if he had heard properly, maybe she was sending a voice message or was tipsy already, Aleks tilted his head in question, blinking Erzsebet’s way.

“Vodka and cola always work though…” he pointed out, wondering if maybe she had meant his choice in alcohol, seeing the waitress slide the two glasses each topped with a lemon slice across the bar for them. But no sooner had he said that did he notice Erzsebet shaking her head, her gentle hand reaching up to carefully brush the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes so she wouldn’t ruin her make up.

“Hey, now,” Aleks hushed her, carefully, not putting his hands on her but making sure to shorten the distance between them as much as possible, so Erzsebet wouldn't feel alone at least. And though he had an idea of all the most generic things he could tell her, seeing her in tears over a breakup reminded him that he too had been robbed of something he had begun to consider his, something…special.

_Oh, no_.

“I…I slept with Vuk, Miśić…” he admitted to her, speaking to himself as much as he was speaking to Erzsebet who maybe just wasn’t listening. “And I really thought we had something…even if we were on and off, and…We weren’t anything. We never were anything. Never will be anything…And I’m really hurt because of it, but he’ll never know…I should’ve let Tanja have him after all. It’s not even worth crying about it, maybe some other time, I’ll…”

“I won’t forget him…Is that even possible?”

Aleks pushed one glass in front of her and, when he knew she wouldn’t stop him, slowly slid her phone out of her reach.

“This works for now,” he said, confidently enough that he knew she wouldn’t ever doubt his words. “Go wash your face. We’re here for you.”

She’s gone before he could reach up to brush the trail of wet mascara making its way down her beautiful cheek himself.

She wouldn’t ever forget him – how could you ever forget something unforgettable? How could you ever forget years of humiliation, of tip-toeing around your own home like a robber?

  1. Six whole New Years had gone by, six whole birthdays and Christmases, six Easters.



It struck Erzsebet suddenly that there wouldn’t be a seventh one of either of those days. Not because she had finally gathered enough courage and had regained enough of her self-respect back to actually pack up and leave – there was actually nothing left to walk away from. Gilbert was gone already.

Well, gone in the metaphorical sense, he was actually quite physically present there with her, his body lying on their bed still dressed for the dinner they were supposed to attend. He didn’t move, of course, when Erzsebet, after realizing what she had just done, sat down slowly and with caution on the very edge of the bed. She set the gun, the barrel of which was just barely beginning to cool down, on the bed beside her before putting her hands on her thighs – so innocent and confused was Erzsebet’s expression and actions that it almost seemed as though she had been added into the chaotic scene of crime.

“Get up, honey,” she said, as if expecting a reply. “They’ll be waiting for us at the restaurant.”

“If you hadn’t wasted so much time, we would be out right now,” her now dead husband pointed out, too cocky for his own good, though what more could Erzsebet do to him. “So? What now, schatzi? Wow…You went and did it, didn’t you? Great job! Didn’t think you’d get this far? _What now_?”

“What now…” Erzsebet repeated, turning to look at Gilbert.

“Don’t look at me!” He brushed her off quickly. “This is what you wanted, right? Fine! Fix your mess on your own…”

“This is your fault!” She yelled. Even when her husband was no longer really there he knew how to make her angry. To think that he hadn’t moved a muscle, hadn’t said a thing either – he was just as dead as before a minute, sprawled over the bloodied duvet and pillows.

“What, did I shoot myself? But alright, alright! Blame me! I like to see you try that in front of the judge…”

“The judge…”

“The _judge_.”

How stupid of him to say so, considering he too, as well as the entire mess had been nothing but a part of Erzsebet’s imagination. It had to be, instead of a bullet, Gilbert had gotten a glass thrown at him when he had tried to yell at Erzsebet, she would never go farther, absolutely _not_.

“That’s what they all say,” a tone so unimpressed and impatient it could only belong to Gilbert made her just a bit more aware again. There wasn’t a bed under her anymore, as if there never had been one, only a chair. In front of her, across the overturned table, another chair and on that chair – a man.

“Name?” Said man demanded of her, toying with his pen while in his other hand he held a wad of papers.

“Elizabeth Hedervary-Beilschmidt,” Erzsebet answered, quickly and without any questions, as if she had gone through the procedure enough times before and knew just when and what to say. It was all a play, Gilbert was joking with her.

The man across her wrote that down.

“Crime and punishment?” He delivered the next question with the same business tone.

Stunned, Erzsebet blinked at him, waiting to hear the rest of the question that would perhaps give the words more sense, but the man only waited, toying with the dreaded pen.

“Punishment for what?”

He rolled his eyes at her, so annoyed, as if this wasn’t his first time today giving such an explanation.

“For your crime! Why else punish someone? So, let me hear it. What did you do?”

“When?”

“Today a year ago. What do you think! Before you got here.”

“But what is _here_?!”

The man squeezed his eyes shut, counting quietly to ten before looking back at Erzsebet, a prayer to the holy Mother for patience on his lips.

“Does the electric chair always rattle the brain this much? You’re in _Hell_.”

The boys were talking when Erzsebet returned to their table but the heated conversation abruptly ended the moment they spotted her approaching. Either they had been bad-mouthing her behind her back, highly likely, or they had been discussing something they were too shy to mention in front her. It made Erzsebet feel awkward, why was she there even? She disliked Vladimir and could never agree with Tomas. With how things were going, she would be stuck scrolling through her phone again in no time while sipping her drink – Erzsebet didn’t even feel in the mood to drink.

“What are you losers talking about?” She asked, plopping down on the soft crescent-shaped couch. Aleks had brought her drink from the bar while she had been fixing her make up and just to have something to fondle with instead of the hem of her dress, Erzsebet took the glass in her hands.

“Men stuff,” Vladimir said, eyeing her, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I’m fine with that, girlfriend.”

“So we’re not technically done for…” Tomas said, picking up their conversation again.

Aleksander shook his head at him, disappointed, as he had spent a good few minutes talking to a wall.

“And why are you here then if you are technically still a thing?"

“Well, it’s not like I’m doing anything bad…”

“Not _now_. But eventually…”

“What are we talking about?” Erzsebet asked, making at least an effort to be polite and friendly.

She saw Tomas bite his lip, averting his eyes – like Vladimir, he didn’t especially like Erzsebet, found her unreasonably cocky, but it was the four of them after all and he had already spilt the tea about his breakup in their group chat so was it even worth being secretive all of a sudden just because he hated her company?

A female opinion couldn’t possibly hurt to have.

“It’s just Hedvika!” He exclaimed, “I don’t know what’s up with her…”

“Wait, she didn’t leave you?”

“I told her not to come back.”

“Then she probably won’t come back,” Erzsebet pointed out. “Unless you hope she does…”

“I kind of wish she’d at least text,” Tomas muttered pathetically, checking his phone even to see if Hedvika had maybe dropped him a hint…But like before, there was no news from her; they had never been so low before, a sure sign that whatever their relationship had become, its time was due.

“I don’t know guys…We’ve been together for ages now, I just don’t know how to let her go. You understand what I mean?”

“Bro, I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t know whoever put it in your head that you and Hedvika were a good couple,” Aleks said, “but you really ought to rethink it. Like, be honest with me – was she your first? Like the first person you had sex with?”

“Yeah…” Tomas admitted, rather bitterly.

“And were you her first?”

“Yes.”

“Then here you have it, clearly the girl wants to fuck other people! She’s bored! I bet you have been doing it only on the holidays? And when was the last time she gave you a blowjob – your birthday?”

“Why is everything about you sex-related?” Vlad groaned, scowling at his friend, “Do you have a trauma or something, are you insecure…?”

“I’m stating facts, not like you’d know, wanker,” Aleks bit back, making Vladimir blush horribly, before leaning back into the couch. He even let his arm rest along the backrest, an invitation for Erzsebet to lean back whenever, so subtle that nobody found it necessary to point out.

“Well I didn’t want to force her into it,” Tomas explained after a moment, having thought about it actually. “I mean…we haven’t been doing it that much…But I didn’t want much of her, like, I just wanted us to watch Strawberry Moon together!”

“I would be so down if someone invited me to watch the finale together,” Vlad sighed dreamily, always a sucker for romance and all that jazz, as some would call it.

“I even made popcorn…”

“I’d kill for a movie date right about this point of my life.”

“Me too, actually…” Erzsebet admitted. She remembered once when her relationship was something new and exciting, Gilbert would pick her up every Friday and take her to see a movie – she actually kept all those tickets, in an old notebook somewhere. It had been cute, it had been good, it had been most of all something that had set Gilbert apart from all her previous flings.

They looked up at Aleks, expecting a similar shy confession, but it seemed that he had completely zoned out for a moment. When he finally did speak up, the words were barely loud enough to reach any of them over the music.

“I’ve…never really had a movie date…”

Vuk parked the car at the Shell station just outside the city and turned off the engine. The highway was nearly empty, given the late hour.

“Do you want anything?” Vuk asked him, after a moment of silence. He looked over at Aleks, who’s too busy pouting in the passenger’s seat, “A, Sashe?”

“A coffee,” came the reply, spat out at him with overexaggerated dramatism.

He watched as Vuk got out of the car and went inside the gas station to pay after waving over the boy to fill the tank before getting out himself to get a breath of fresh air.

“Max motion, sto,” Aleks told the gas boy when he strode over, looking back inside the station where Vuk was waiting for his coffee. He paid for that, a pack of cigarettes and the fuel with a hundred buck bill, showing off as was his horrible habit the wad of banknotes to the girl behind the counter.

His phone rang just as Vuk was walking out of the station and Aleks got back in the car to see how was calling him so late. It was usual actually to have people call either of them late at night or early in the morning, their business forced them to be on the phone and easily reachable almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week unless they made it clear they were off-limits for whatever personal reason. What surprised Aleks wasn’t so much that someone was calling Vuk but that it was Tatjana doing it.

He picked up after considering it heavily in the moments it took Vuk to get to the car and climb back in – by that time Aleks already had the phone in his hand and was raising it to his ear.

“Allo, Vuche,” he heard his sister’s annoying voice and knowing Vuk had heard her too, Aleks met his surprised eyes with a burning glare. “What’s up? I thought you were going to call when you get home?”

“Hello, Tanja,” Aleks greeted her beck, “it’s Aleks. We aren’t home yet, that’s why Vuk hasn’t called. What’s up?”

“ _Oh_ , it’s you,” Tatjana groaned, not even bother to mask her disappointment, as if she had even tried. “Is Vuk there?”

“No. Do you want me to tell him something?”

“No, thanks. Chao, Aleksandre.”

“Chao, chao…”

He left the phone back on the dash and said nothing while Vuk started the car again. They said nothing the entire way home – Aleksander had made it clear that he didn’t want to listen to any made-up excuse. It was painfully clear to him what Vuk liked doing when he guessed he wasn’t looking – Aleksander was neither stupid nor naïve. Some things were more obvious than others.

“No, I just find it weird,” he couldn’t help but rant while Vuk drove them home, turning away from the brightly lit boulevards and down much darker side streets, “why my sister is so comfortable calling you at twelve and a half, like…I’m not so dumb so as not to put two and two together!”

“Ow, stop with the drama,” Vuk brushed him off, his nonchalance acting like gasoline to the fire of jealousy and hurt currently burning Aleksander from the inside out. “I don’t know why she calls! She’s a kid, she probably thinks I’ll let her in the club for free and treat her and her friends drinks.”

“Don’t bullshit me! You know damn well why she calls…”

“I’ve had it up to here with your paranoia, Aleksandre! How about you act your age?”

“I have eyes, Vuk! And it’s not just Tatjana, and it’s not…”

“I’m _not_ having this conversation with you.”

They left the car on the lot in front of their building before walking inside and taking the elevator to their apartment.

“I’m taking a shower,” Vuk informed, after throwing his jacket aside on the living room couch. His keys, phone and wallet he left on the glass coffee table.

Aleksander paid him no attention. He and Vuk had never been a great couple, he wasn’t that sure why they even were together – maybe because it made sense given the business they were partners in to be together in every way possible. There was a certain thrill, being with Vuk – the drugs, the alcohol and constant clubbing had all been very interesting in the beginning. But with those quickly came the women, the girls and guys and then the kidnappings and prostitution once they levelled up from the fake bills and contraband cigarettes and alcohol. When it began Aleksander had promised himself that things wouldn’t change but that was easier said than done…

He had just gotten himself a drink when, walking back into the living room to enjoy the view their apartment had of the city centre and its vibrant lights, Vuk’s phone vibrated, much more than once. Someone was texting him stubbornly and since neither Aleks nor Vuk had ever set boundaries when it concerned their contacts, Aleksander, despite knowing that he would regret it considering how mad he already was, took it to see who it could be.

It was barely a surprise when he saw Tatjana’s name and her profile picture in Messenger pop up in a little bubble right on the screen when he unlocked Vuk’s phone. _Call me when you’re free_ , she wrote, _Aleksander had your phone earlier, when I called you_.

_Miss you._

_Love you._

Emojis, a link to a song, a nearly nude picture of her in an unhooked bra and lace panties, lying in her pink and yellow sheets that covered the bed Aleksander had used to sleep in when her room had been _his_.

He threw the glass at the wall where it shattered just above the TV, leaving behind a stain smelling of high-end whiskey. Next went the coffee table, then the flatscreen and when Vuk finally walked in, Aleksander was ready to throw his phone at the wall too.

“What the fuck are you doing, you cunt?!” He screamed, standing at the doorway still wet from his shower and wearing only the towel around his waist. “What the fuck!”

“It’s your fault!” Aleks yelled back, his face red with rage, “What didn’t I give you, you motherfucker, what wasn’t enough for you?”

“What are you talking about?!”

“ _This_! This is what I’m talking about,” and he showed him the phone where Tatjana was shamelessly winking at him from the screen, her two-dimensional image smug, as if it knew what it was meant to do and enjoyed the drama. “You liked it, huh? You must’ve loved it, huh, getting your dick wet with some underage cunt, right!”

“I was never with her…”

“Liar!”

Vuk backhanded him as savagely as Aleks had been yelling at him, finding no other way to make him stop.

“What do you take me for, Sashe,” he asked, desperately, quickly feeling the guilt flood him when Aleksander looked up at him all teary-eyed and stunned.

“A piece of trash!” Aleks replied, through gritted teeth. “I had enough…I thought I could take it, I thought I could get used to it, but I just can’t anymore, Vuk.”

“That’s your biggest problem,” Vuk said, “you’ve never believed in us. And you’ve never believed me. I should’ve let you be a punching bag to that Turk of yours and then you wouldn’t have had any of this. So, go on, break the TV, break _everything_! It’ll never change that this is all _your_ fault.”

“And just so you know,” he said, matter-of-factly on his way to their bedroom, “you’re just as clingy and obsessive as Tatjana. No wonder you two are related. You could’ve been as good with your mouth as her if you weren’t too busy constantly yelling though…”

By the time Aleks returned into the living room again - it was like a déjà vu, only this time the room was turned upside down and Vuk’s naked body lay in the middle of it as a central part of the chaotic composition. A pool of blood stained the carpet under him, leaking from the gunshot wounds in his chest.

None of that existed to Aleksander as he stepped over the body in the middle of his living room and sat on one of the two leather armchairs. He felt himself sink into the softness of it, felt the faint smell of alcohol mix with the overwhelming copper stench of drying blood.

No sooner had he taken his last gulp of whiskey did Aleks find himself again sitting across from the blonde soldier boy, in the dimly lit messy room. Almost like everything before that had been just a dream, it had gone by in the blink of an eye, and as soon as he opened his eyes again the details began to fade and blend.

“What was I supposed to do?” He asked the blonde, who was again scribbling something with his trusty pen. “I just wasn’t expecting _that_ , you know, if he hadn’t went on and said it, I…Well, I wouldn’t have done it.”

“Understandable, yes,” the other nodded along, listening without much interest. Perhaps he had heard stories such as that enough times already.

“I mean, we fought a lot, but not because we _hated_ each other. Like, we were just emotional, we had our hearts on our sleeves, you know…”

“I know.”

“So…”

“Any regrets then?”

“Of course not! I would do it again too, would you let someone play with you like that?”

After the man had finished noting down Aleks’ story he leaned back into his chair again with a satisfied sigh.

“Well, we’re done,” he said. “You’re free to go.”

Aleks raised a brow. After spending the last few somethings in the dark room, smoking cigarette after cigarette until the air became hard to breathe and there was nothing fresh about it, he wasn’t so sure what had to happen next or if there even was something else to happen.

“Go…where?” He asked.

“Back upstairs,” the blonde waved him off. “What, did you think you would be sitting here forever?”

“Wait, wait. What do you mean by _upstairs_ …? Where’s that?”

“You’re still not finished with your work in the living world. So far, I’ve heard in annoying detail of your crime but I haven’t gotten a word about you being punished, buddy. That’s why…off you go.”

A door opened behind Aleks and when he looked over his shoulder he was met with a hall so long and thin and full of turns that the human eye was incapable of seeing as far as its end. Before he knew it, Aleks was already back in his apartment standing at the frame of the bathroom door and over the bleeding body in his feet.

The waitress brought their second bottle of whiskey and another three screwdrivers for Aleks and Erzsebet but Vlad barely mumbled a short thanks, too focused on his phone to look up at her.

With nothing to distract him, Vladimir’s hand had managed to finally find his phone again and like Erzsebet the first thing he had done was open up Instagram again, looking through old pictures, stories and posts obsessively until all he could wonder was how he had possibly missed the fact that Lukas had been taken all this time. Sure, the guy had been rather secretive, he liked changing the subject whenever his personal life was brought up – understandable – but how Vlad had ignored the many posts with his boyfriend was insane.

Maybe he had lost himself a bit in the translation – Lukas’ social media was full of Norwegian, again, _understandable_ , Vlad barely posted anything in English himself.

A sudden vibration startled him out of his obsessive stalking and when he looked around to find the source, he noticed the phone peeking out from under Aleks’ jacket. It wasn’t Aleksander’s though and it couldn’t be Tomas’ either so Vlad figured it belonged to Erzsebet. He was just about ready to ignore it when it vibrated again, then again, so stubbornly, that before he knew it, Vladimir was reaching over to see who was texting her so much. He really had no boundaries when it came to Erzsebet. Maybe because he didn’t consider her personal space much.

He hadn’t been meaning to snoop, he wasn’t that interested in her life, but it was rather tempting, especially when he saw it was Gilbert texting. Well, Vlad did consider it for a moment, he wasn’t usually the kind to start drama…But before he could actually convince himself to leave the phone and go back to his own, another text popped up on the screen.

_I should’ve left you months ago_ , he wrote, _I can’t believe you right now_.

_Are you seriously not going to reply?_

_Where are you?_

_I’m sorry, let’s talk, okay._

_I’m sorry._

_Hey, Lizzie…_

It was the last text that hurt Vladimir, not because he felt sorry for Erzsebet…But maybe he did, a little bit, despite everything. He might not have had a relationship until then but it was enough to only imagine Lukas, one of the few people he had ever really liked, telling him something like that was enough to make his heart ache.

He should’ve left the phone and gone back to drinking, Tomas would surely come back soon and if Erzsebet saw him with her phone, they’d ruin their night with another fight. So instead Vlad did the next best thing, after thinking about it – but not overthinking – and throwing a glance at the dance floor where Aleks had just wrapped his arms around the laughing Erzsebet, both of them so drunk that they were trying to find stability in each other but failing horribly, Vlad left Erzsebet’s phone and took his own instead.

_Please don’t text anymore tonight_ , he wrote Gilbert, after opening his Messenger _, I’m sure you’re having fun too, thanks!_

Knowing that Gilbert would definitely not get the hint until he elaborated, Vlad took a picture of Erzsebet and Aleks on the dancefloor and sent that too, with a smiley face in addition.

“She’s still in front of my eyes,” Tomas told him when he came back. By then Vlad had refilled their glasses and had left Erzsebet’s and his own phones in Aleks’ jacket where he knew they’d forget them soon; thankfully Aleks had pockets Vlad could zip up, it wouldn’t be nice if they happened to lose their phones somewhere either.

“You’ll get over it,” Vladimir assured him, pushing the glass in his hands.

“Did something happen? You look kind of smug…”

Vlad changed the subject instead of answering, though he did feel smug – the vibrations he could feel coming from the jacket beside him, quick and incessant, only made him feel better.

“I think you know what you’ve got to do.”

“Is he alive? Oh, no, no, no…”

The blood spilt from the horrible wound, conveniently hidden by Lukas’ hair, as if it had been done almost on purpose to censor the gory scene. Vladimir couldn't make himself move from where he had sat down on the tiled floor, torn between the need to go and see if his roommate was alright and still alive and the fear of getting anywhere near the crimson puddle. It looked nothing like the blood in the movies, he realized.

“Lukas?” He called out instead, his voice wavering. The body on the tiles, however, remained still. “Are you okay…? I’m so sorry, please, tell me you’re alright…”

“Are you serious right now?” The voice in his head asked, almost sarcastically, “You just bashed someone’s head in and that’s what you ask? Christ, no wonder you had to kill a person to make him stay with you…”

“Shut up! I didn’t mean it, I swear…”

He could almost imagine the voice, if it even had a body behind it, rolling its eyes. Really, if Vlad was in its position he would probably be doing the same – the situation was funny really, never mind that he had just murdered his roommate and best friend in cold blood.

“Well, we’re here already,” the voice reminded him casually, “so you might as well get rid of that mess. If I can make a suggestion, you might want to dump it out as far from here as you can, just get it in the trunk of the car and…”

“Just shut up, shut up, shut up…!”

Vlad stood up, his legs shaking, and finally went to see if Lukas was alive after all, defeating the fear that had overwhelmed him earlier. He knelt beside him, tried to feel if he was still breathing but Lukas remained horribly still; dead.

He hadn’t meant to do it, Lukas hadn’t done anything to deserve such a horrible welcome either, he had merely told Vladimir…Well, not merely, the words had hurt and his even tone had made Vlad that much angrier. Why did he have to be so cold? Metaphorically, that is, that was a bad way of phrasing it, given the circumstances.

_Shit_.

He got up, brushing his hands off his jeans before burying his face in his palms, he was shaking. This conversation couldn’t have gone any worse – one moment Lukas was telling him how he would most likely be going home in a week to spend his vacation with his _boyfriend_ , the next Vlad was walking up behind him with one of the heavy ceramic ashtrays their landlord had left for them. He hadn’t been drunk or under the influence of any drugs, than what had possessed him to do such a thing was beyond Vladimir, as if someone else had hijacked his body and had now left him to clean the mess, as bizarre and cliched as that excuse was.

It would surely not hold up in court, would it?

“You’re making this out to be more dramatic than it should be,” Vlad heard the voice again, though this time he was so sure it wasn’t him whispering desperately in his hands. “I just have to…I just have to get a grip. Yeah. Nobody has to know…I have to hide him first, make sure nobody can trace him to me, wash the bathroom…”

“Finally, thinking straight!” His invisible companion applauded him, “You’ve got guts, that’s good to see.”

It laughed cruelly while Vlad scrambled to his feet. Aside from the horrible wound on the back of his head, there was nothing else visibly off about Lukas that could even hint at him being, well, dead. Vlad could possibly drag him downstairs and get him to his car and if someone saw them at all despite how dark it was outside already, they’d probably think Lukas was just drunk.

“Grab his documents, anything he would’ve needed to go back home,” the voice in his head advised, watching him pace around the apartment, “pack his luggage, careful not to leave something behind. Won’t Artie be back soon? Wash the bathroom first, with cold water. Stop running around like a chicken without a head and get to work, do you want the sun to come up!”

He was rude and sounded like his mother, but Vladimir had to admit that his inner voice was right. So he did whatever it suggested – packet everything Lukas had planned on taking in the black trash bags and took those out to stuff in the car before going back upstairs to wash the bathroom. Arthur, their other roommate, shouldn’t be home before morning, he had gone out somewhere to drink, but Vlad couldn’t take the risk of leaving the puddle of blood in the bathroom while he got rid of the body. Arthur was weird for sure but not weird enough to just ignore it.

He changed clothes before dragging Lukas outside – he was sure by then that he wasn’t just unconscious but dead, he weighed as much as a sack of potatoes and most definitely wasn’t breathing. Even then Vladimir couldn’t help but adore him, apologizing the entire way to the car every time he actually nearly dropped him and especially when he had to lay him down under the backseat and cover him up with the bags and whatever else he could find in the car. Guilt overwhelmed him at the thought of having robbed himself of the chance of ever having Lukas for himself, willingly.

“He deserved it,” the voice in his head said, while Vladimir drove, “he would’ve left, wouldn’t even have given you a second glance! Who do you think you are, some magnet? It’s better this way…Too bad you didn’t get your dick wet with him, right? Don’t worry…It’ll happen someday.”

“Why are you so cynical? What did I ever do to you for you to speak to me like that…”

“You’re a naïve kid, isn’t that enough! I’m trying to teach you a lesson here, Vladi! You listen to me now, and you’ll be golden. Now, just drive outside of town, it doesn’t matter where. Nobody saw you, nobody cares about a foreigner, the police won’t even bat an eye.”

“Okay…”

So Vladimir drove at least half an hour to exit the city and then nearly another hour down the highway to reach an off-road trail where he thought he could dump a body and get away with it.

It had already started pouring by the time Vlad stopped the car and dragged Lukas’ body out. It was so dark that he had to use the flashlight on his phone, he could hear dogs barking in the distance.

“I’m so sorry,” he told Lukas, closed his eye for the last time as a last symbol of peace and an apology before planting their first and last kiss to his cold lips, despite it feeling almost like a desecration.

“You’re really disgusting,” the voice scolded him once Vlad was back in the car, observing the lump in the middle of the darkness that surely was Lukas’ body. He felt horrible, just leaving him there.

“I loved him so much…” He said, finally daring to look sideways at the voice and the man that he knew it belonged to – a shadow that had followed him along ever since they had moved into the apartment, the one that had forced his hand when he had murdered Lukas and the one that had been helping him throughout the horrible night; his head had begun to hurt with the realization that he was staring at a form of himself and still one very different one.

“That doesn’t count for much, does it,” the man, sitting casually in the driver’s seat, “I mean, you’re such a loser, Vladi, I’d leave you too. But don’t worry, we’re together in this now, and I’m not a traitor. We can go down together.”

He was casually dressed, his accent definitely western and he was definitely, unlike Vlad, not a foreigner. His eyes and smile promised danger yet they were enough to draw him in and make him do whatever he wanted, no wonder that’s just what Vlad had been doing the whole night thinking he had been under the influence of some inner voice.

He actually looked like a pretty nice guy until he pulled the gun on him – it was maybe around that time that Vlad decided he wasn’t just hot but also not worthy of thrust and definitely a bad choice to follow.

“You liar…”

“I’m sorry, Vladi. You did seem like a nice boy.”

The next day when they found the car, they claimed it had all been a plan of suicide. So much the better.

Vladimir though never really forgave Aleks; they actually fought really regularly, downstairs, now. An eternity was a long time to spend with the person that had made you shoot yourself.

“It’s a really sad story,” the man finally conceded to tell them, after decades of insisting he did. “Well, it all started when I married my wife…”

That happened just a few months after he met her, when Hedvika returned from Vienna where she had studied. She wouldn’t have happened hadn’t her family lived in the outskirts of his town in a villa that had belonged to them for many decades now. It was obvious by the way she spoke and acted that Hedvika preferred the city, the luxurious life, she couldn’t even brag with the lands her family owned as they weren’t worth much anymore.

Tomas, on the other hand, knew little of the life outside of the province and maybe that’s why she had found him so interesting at first. He took her on walks in the forest and along the river, gifted her bouquets of wildflowers and made her colourful wreaths she’d wear in her hair and always when his mother whom he was an only precious child to would bake something sweet, Tomas would run right to Hedvika with a gift.

He proposed to her jokingly on one of the first spring days, just after the sun had melted the last remaining snow.

“I’d very much want to spend my life here with you,” Tomas had told her, had held her delicate hands and had even gone on one knee for her, just so Hedvika could see he was completely serious. “And if you would allow me that, I’d be the happiest man in this world, I’m honest!”

“Are you insane?” Hedvika had asked him, visibly flustered. “What am I going to do here with you, become a shop keeper? And what will happen if they make you leave? However would I live and support myself, being married to a soldier…”

“For you, I’d go to Vienna and to Prague, I’d leave the army in a heartbeat, I’d sell everything and I’d build you a palace!”

“You idiot, as if you’d ever!”

They were married by the end of spring and Tomas began building a house for them just outside of town, under the thick shade of trees, just by the road and close to the river so they could hear the crickets and frogs singing at night. Of course, Hedvika’s father offered his hand in the making of the house, he wasn’t pleased that his daughter had married the son of a merchant, one that had been going poor over the years, but he had told her nothing, merely helped wherever he could.

But the couple, as much as they were happy in their first months of marriage, lacked luck. Hedvika soon found it difficult to cope with the lack of attention now that Tomas was busy constantly, either working and taking care of the store his family owned or whenever he wasn’t there, he’d be building the house. Said house Hedvika had begun to hate, she dreamed of the city’s luxurious buildings and the grand facades lining the wide streets, well-lit and lively, what would she do in a house in the middle of nowhere, neither part of the village or of town, along the border no less! No, it was too late to stop Tomas and what he was doing, she’d have to suffer and carry the burden of her husband by herself.

Merely a month into autumn they made Tomas report back to the army. The rumours of war had swept over their provincial town, Hedvika’s Vienna was now part of some Germany, no sooner had they learned that did their Prague suffer the same fate. Tomas' mother cried and suffered day after day, having lived through wars already and knowing that her boy could be sent who knows where to fight for who knows who.

But there wasn’t much fighting done that year or the next and the family’s life only grew harder. They stopped building the house before they could finish the roof and had to put higher prices on what they sold in the shop after the currency change. Tomas’ mother died come spring of the 1939th and the newlyweds had to live alone in the small apartment in the building they shared with a number of annoying neighbours Hedvika couldn’t stand.

When the Germans came that summer, the couple again found how horribly different they thought – while Hedvika was ready to sew uniforms for them, Tomas couldn’t help but be secretly bitter. He could see Hedvika growing more and more distant from him and though his love for her wouldn’t die, something else began to grow as far as his feelings went – jealousy. His wife had always been beautiful, intelligent and always knew best - most of all, she knew German. So when the Germans did come and began buying from their store, she quickly found a way to speak to them, engage them in conversations about whatever they found interesting and once, without the permission of her husband, invited the commandant Herr to dinner.

“I knew you’d run away,” he told Hedvika the same night, after having to stand her being a willing servant to those German Herrs and tending to their needs. “Don’t even try to lie to me.”

“You’re incredibly stupid, Tomanek,” Hedvika told him, frowning. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I’ve always wanted to give you everything…”

“We live in poverty! This isn’t _everything_.”

"So it's better to be a servant to other men..."

"Be careful how you talk to me!" Hedvika screamed, her cheeks quickly becoming red with spite and rage. "Who do you think you are? After all I'm doing for you...The quicker you get on their good side, the sooner they'll start working for you and helping you! And you treat me so ungratefully..."

"But I don't want you to do this..." Tomas said, torn between his desperation to keep Hedvika there with him and his feeling of pride that she kept on wounding. She was slipping away, he could feel it. Every passing day that he failed to meet her needs and wants, Tomas felt Hedvika taking a step away.

"I just don't want you to go, Hedvika, I don't want us to fight...For God's sake, I love you!"

It wasn't as though Hedvika had said something after, it was actually the horrible, hateful way she looked at him, as though he could never do more than just love her, as though that didn't matter and was all some joke and an excuse she was fed up with. It made Tomas see red but the hatred that he suddenly began to feel for her didn't go away, not even after he had buried her body under the rocks and concrete in the basement.

“And that’s how we got here,” Tomas said, slapping his cards in the middle of the table. Annoyed, Vladimir threw his own down and crossed his arms.

“I can’t believe it, how do you guys always win!” He complained.

“Don’t worry,” Aleks comforted him gently, “I’ll teach you to win.”

“You cheat, all of you cheat!”

Erzsebet stuck her tongue out at him from across the table, “Stop being a sore loser, Vladimir, and try to learn to play at least!”

Tomas watched the fight break out between the two while Aleks calmly gathered back the cards, wondering just why he had been given this horribly irritating job in the first place and why these three just refused to move on to somewhere else already.

Babysitting a trio of bitter lovers was definitely not in the job description when they first stuffed him in the office; maybe it wasn’t so annoying actually, Tomas could cope.

By the time Erzsebet stumbled out of the club, she had forgotten all about the guy that had found it funny to spill half a bottle of whiskey onto her dress, the image of Aleksander punching said guy was almost completely replaced by the horrible need to throw up and the incapability of her poor head to stop spinning.

It was around that time of morning when the busses and other types of public transport came every half an hour or forty minutes or more. The drizzle of rain and the cold air helped her sober up, albeit not enough to walk in a straight line. She couldn’t get the stench of cigarettes out of her nose – her own skin stank of it.

“No, no, no…!” Aleksander exclaimed, her dizzy head making his voice sound distant. When Erzsebet turned around to see what was happening, he saw him leaning over Vladimir who had braced himself against the building and had bend over, heaving miserably and spitting out saliva and stomach juices. “Not here, Vladimire…! Mother of…”

“I’m okay, I’m okay…” Vladimir wheezed, pushing himself off the wall to instead stumble into Aleks who laughed, at Vlad or at the situation in general, Erzsebet wasn’t sure. She felt so horrible and ill that nothing really seemed amusing.

“I want to go home,” she said, brushing aside the few strands of damp hair from her forehead and cheeks. “Where’s my phone…Someone call a taxi…”

Blindly, she reached around as if her jacket would materialize out of thin air for her to grab. Her dress felt wet against her chest and thighs, the wet material clung uncomfortably to her skin and itched – it made her feel desperate to just peel it off and scrub herself clean. The embarrassment almost made her tear up.

Someone covered her shoulders with something heavy, a jacket, and Erzsebet looked over her shoulder to see Tomas, looking at her but with a look so distant, she couldn’t be sure just what he was really seeing.

“I don’t know where your phone went…” he stuttered.

“I have a better idea,” Vladimir said, sounding so sober suddenly that it was hard to argue with his confidence. “I have weed, in my jacket…”

“I’m going to be sick,” Erzsebet warned.

“You won’t,” Vlad reassured her. “We can hotbox the car…”

“Oh, no,” Aleks refused. “Last we did that, my dad caught me and I got an earful, no, no…”

“I have a free apartment,” Tomas piped up, the invitation obvious, though he seemed a bit hesitant.

“Won’t Hedvika come home?” Aleks asked.

“No. Or, so what…I mean…The apartment’s mine. I can do whatever I want.”

“I’m not sure…” Erzsebet hesitated again. A part of her really wanted to go home and another wondered just what she would even do if she went home.

“Hey, it’s not a bad idea,” Aleks said, helping Vlad stand while he walked closer to her. Their bodies radiated so much heat, like stars, ones that carried the heavy smell of cigarette smoke and alcohol so pungent it felt as though their skin had soaked it all up. “We already decided to go out, might as well finish the night on good terms…We can get food? More to drink?”

“I’m already starving,” Tomas nearly exclaimed, perking up at the thought of food.

“Yeah, come on! It’s still early. Come on…”

The drizzle became a steady fall of rain and she could see through her lashes the streetlights becoming nothing but orbs of light as the world melted around them. Aleksander took her by the hand, maybe he was supporting himself against them just as much as Vlad and Erzsebet used him for support while he strode down the street, his attitude so confidant that it could almost excuse the way he stumbled and couldn’t keep a straight line.

All that mattered was that they were walking, under the rain, like in a bad romance movie but Erzsebet wasn’t sure when else she would get the chance to live it. In the back of her mind, somewhere stuffed in some dusty corner, the embarrassment and uncertainty reared their little black heads, making her doubt her own intoxicated decisions. Maybe she was making a mistake, but what about it? All of Instagram knew already, from the many posts all of them had made that night. And Gilbert…He would find out and maybe she could do something out of spite after all.

Her heel caught in a crack on the pavement and if Aleksander hadn’t caught her, Erzsebet would’ve easily fallen face-first on the wet ground. It became almost funny to be so out of balance and now that the fresh air had helped Erzsebet clear her head, she felt almost as light as a feather.

Her sudden excitement and lack of reflexes and rationality was the only excuse she’d have for later, when she recalled how the following events were merely a chain reaction caused by the single kiss she felt the urge to steal from Aleksander when he pulled her back to his side; security, and comfort, that night Erzsebet fell in love for the first and final time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Obviously this story takes place before Covid was a thing, 'cus they closed the clubs in the country and the lot of underage brats have nothing to do now :D  
> *Keep in mind the time and place of the story is undisclosed, maybe there's no lockdown in Hungary or Slovakia, I don't know  
> *When Romania calls Bulgaria's accent western, that means western Bulgarian, which is much harder than the softer eastern speech - I don't know, Sofia's been capital for a whole lot of while now, so he most definitely won't be talking like a seaside man  
> *In Bulgaria, the literal translation of wanker is a very funny and valid insult, it's not really posh and fancy like wanker, but basically there's no other word to translate it with and I really wanted to add it  
> *Does anyone else think Czech really cheated on Slovakia with Prussia and Prussia with her on Hungary or will this remain kind of like something implied here? I still haven't decided...  
> *Each of the scenes dedicated to what's going on in the underworld is based on a music video, except Czsechoslovakia's (can't believe this is such a good and actual ship name) which is more based on a subplot in Božena Němcová's "The Grandmother" and, a question to my Czech readers, is that book really so popular?  
> *Max Motion Sto is a brand of fuel, 'allo' is what you say when you pick up the phone, 'chao, chao' or just 'chao' is only and exclusively used as a bye c: And whoever made up the headcanon of Macedonia and Bulgaria being like the Balkan Austro-Hungary or Czechoslovakia, with all due respect...no  
> *I love how Serbia's canon...All we need is Montenegro now and we'll have the whole Balkan club :D  
> *Questions by me: What's the most preferred type of alcohol in the clubs in Hungary and Slovakia and what music is most listened to in Romanian clubs? I'm genuinely curious to hear the natives' perspectives  
> *Yes, I know I missed the diacritics, I just forgot them, sorry, it's not like people know how to read them anyway or pay attention to them


	3. Rat Poison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I work fast, don't I, don't I :D ?? This story was a ride, seriously, I haven't written anything this fun in ages. I got the porn I wanted, you got the porn you came for, our job here is done c: For some good erotic vibes while reading, you could check out the sexiest song I've heard in a while with definitely the sexiest video right over here -> https://youtu.be/lIUEo-J0CE8 , aside from that, I really have very little to say than ask you to drop off a comment, tell me how you've liked the story, and wish you a great time while reading! <3 There certainly will be a fourth plan to serve as an epilogue to this trilogy, so you can stay tuned for that!

Tomas had plush animals in his room – nearly five years already of presents for Hedvika. They were put in rows on the shelves above the bed, sat between the pillows on the innocent baby blue duvet. Their black beady eyes stared at them and their little sewn-in smiles or frowns made them seem either judgmental or a little too happy when Erzsebet was the first one to get naked.

“Domino’s aren’t taking orders,” Tomas said, walking – or rather stumbling – into the bedroom while staring dumbly at his phone. “And now what…?”

“Well, what did you expect,” Aleks laughed, “it’s almost four!”

He had collapsed on the bed almost immediately, the warmth in the apartment doing very little to sober him up. Everything was spinning already and come to think of it they had bought whine from the Non-Stop down the street. He could certainly go for another drink as soon as he felt a little bit better and everyone else could definitely be drunker.

“I’m going to die without greasy food tomorrow,” Tomas complained, flopping down on the bouncy mattress beside Aleks.

“Just go drink some water,” he suggested, turning his attention back to Erzsebet. Aleksander raised his hips off the bed a little when he noticed her rubbing her round bum into him, her glossy eyes staring at him but almost as if looking right past him.

“Can I smoke indoors?” Vlad’s question ruined the sudden pleasantly set mood when he clicked his lighter on and off a few times.

Tomas regarded him with a lazy, sleepy look – Hedvika didn’t smoke and was really against it, liked to think that Tomas didn’t smoke either though he did, from time to time. But she wasn’t home anyway and he would make sure she didn’t come back so what did he care if the bedsheets smelled.

“Go for it!” He exclaimed, throwing an arm up.

Vladimir inhaled deeply first before clumsily walking over the bed. He got up on the rocky mattress, sinking into its unstable softness, and knelt behind Erzsebet. She had a beautiful back, exposed by the tight black dress, and if he liked or more of thought of her neutrally, Vlad would even call her pretty. She had, what Aleksander called, model beauty – plump in all the right places but not fat, tall but not so tall that she looked bad wearing heels, thin but not bony, sporty.

Part of the reason he didn’t find her too appealing perhaps were the breasts and general feminine curvature, though she did have the personality that usually made Vlad’s knees go weak.

He reached up to touch her exposed skin and gently moved aside Erzsebet’s curls to expose her neck and shoulder before passing her the blunt.

“I’m going to be sick…” Erzsebet complained, turning her head away when Vlad pushed it towards her lips.

“Don’t be a baby,” he said, reaching down from her soft hair to run his fingers along the zipper of the dress.

“Leave her alone,” Aleks said, reaching for the blunt instead, an excuse to run his palms along Erzsebet’s naked thighs. “Give me that…”

He took the cigarette from Vladimir, who was already toying with the zipper of Erzsebet’s dress and slowly, without her even noticing, pulling it down to expose more of her skin. He watched Aleksander take a slow drag while his eyes were stuck to Erzsebet as the cloth hugging her forms slowly revealed more and more of her.

“What’re you doing back there?” Aleks asked, noticing the way Erzsebet arched her back, the soft, teasing sound of a zipper being pulled reaching his ears.

“Nothing,” Vlad replied, carelessly, as he tugged the zipper all the way down. She wore a black bra underneath, with see-through plastic straps, and just below the edge of it, lined with lace, there was a sprinkle of light moles.

Erzsebet raised her hands above her head and with a gentle, naughty smile let Vladimir tug down her dress. Her own eyes were on Aleksander as he sucked on the end of the cigarette before letting Tomas have it – surprisingly, he found their host dozing against his shoulder and he had to wake him up, teasingly tickling the back of his neck until Tomas finally stirred.

“What are you doing?” Erzsebet asked quietly, when Vladimir ran his teeth across the edge of her jaw and, with a finger and gentle push, moved her head to the side to bite at her earlobe.

“Having fun,” he replied before pushing her forward and into Aleksander’s chest. Erzsebet’s laugh really annoyed him and when she kissed Aleksander, jealousy overwhelmed Vladimir. He leaned over Tomas to get the weed back, staring blankly at the kissing couple, and when he felt the blonde beneath him blow the cloud of smoke in his face teasingly, Vlad looked down at him and his lopsided, drunk little grin.

“I’m having _a lot_ of fun,” Tomas told him before raising a brow, asking just a bit timidly, “What’s wrong?”

“Why?”

“You seem out of it…like, out of it, not just…tipsy.”

“No, I’m fine,” Vlad assured him, blowing two quick puffs of smoke back in Tomi’s face and making him laugh. “Hey, love birds, do you want wine?”

He threw one of the fluffier plush toys at Erzsebet and she laughed, rolling off Aleks and giving Vlad the chance to take her place for a quick second. In a moment of bravery and counting that Aleks was drunk enough to allow him, Vlad leaned over him and tried to steal himself a quick kiss – only things didn’t go too smoothly.

Aleks let him only brush his lips against his before leaning back and covering Vladimir’s mouth with his hand to stop him.

“What?” He asked, raising a brow. Knowing that the problem wasn’t that Vlad was a guy only made him feel that much more embarrassed and angry.

“Nothing…” Vladimir shook his head, “Sorry.”

He wasn’t sure when during the long ride home and the many minutes spent shivering in the cold while waiting for the buses it happened but Vladimir knew that suddenly Aleksander had kicked all thoughts of his heartbreak out of his mind, replacing them with curiosity. It could all just be the alcohol talking, naturally, but it was hard to mistake the feeling of desire he felt and that of want when he saw him kissing Erzsebet, first outside in front of the club and then now.

The problem was that Vladimir had known Aleks for ages now, or so it felt sometimes. They had their ups and downs but the former did outnumber the latter. Aleks was his best friend without a doubt and Vlad had never seen in him anything but that, even when he had to admit to himself that he wasn’t as bisexual as he had thought once when it was fashionable to experiment.

That’s why when he felt the urge to kiss his best friend, he was willing to believe that it was merely his bitterness finding an outlet but when Aleks pushed him away, it was more hurt Vlad felt than anything else. Accepting that Lukas, a summer crush, would never be his seemed far easier than being rejected by someone much closer.

He walked into the kitchen after Tomas told him where to find the water glasses. A steady dull ache was already beginning to form in his head, a sign that maybe Vlad was sobering up already. He was careful not to drop anything when he took the glasses out of the cabinet overhead, made himself be careful while uncapping the wine – he powered himself a generous amount and only a fourth of Sprite. Only the strong, faintly fruity scent of it made the ache in his temples worsen.

Vladimir was just about to pour in a second glass for Aleksander, knowing he would surely want it, when said mister surprised him by calling out his name from the doorframe.

“Vladi,” Aleks said, stumbling half-naked into the kitchen, “is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Vlad lied, cursing when he poured a fourth of the glass out on the counter. He couldn’t make himself focus completely and not only did his teeth already feel numb but so did his hands and his legs. Only bringing the glass of wine close to his face had made him want to faint, his senses succumbing to the alcohol.

“You don’t seem fine. What’s up?”

“No, it’s…”

There were so many things he wanted to say and the night already felt like a dream, hours turned into days of events, so maybe it wouldn’t matter if he did end up saying all that was on his mind.

Still, Vlad couldn’t help but be cautious. He wasn’t sure why they had come to Tomas’ apartment anymore.

“I have a problem with you making out with her,” he admitted bitterly, trailing a finger in the small puddle of light alcohol on the counter.

“I didn’t mean to push you away,” Aleks said, quietly crossing the kitchen to stand beside Vlad. “I didn’t mean to make out with Erzsebet either, by the way, it’s just you got her naked, I thought…”

“I’m not into her,” Vladimir hissed out bitterly, the mere thought of it insulting him. “I don’t even think I’m into girls at all…”

Fearing a sexist or homophobic comment, Vladimir stood waiting for a response from Aleks holding his breath. Instead, his friend surprised him by how nonchalant he was when he spoke up again.

“Oh,” Aleks’ voice was almost too soft to hear but despite that, it was hard to mistake the tone of sincere understanding and complete lack of care about what his friend had just told him. “I get it…So you’re not bi after all?”

“I don’t think so.”

“But you’ve never tried it with a guy, right?” Aleks didn’t need to see Vlad nod to know he hadn’t really tried it with anyone. His confidence when making jokes or talking about sex and relationships came mainly from Aleks and the stuff he told and showed Vladimir. “How do you know you’ll really like it then?”

“I _don’t_ know, Aleks,” Vlad said, stressing every word, “I guess I’ll have to try watching hetero porn, am I right?”

“No, that’s not what I mean, I…Okay, it’s cool. If you say that, it’s cool.”

“Are you sure…?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know…”

Struggling to admit something like that was something Vlad had found difficult for a long time now so it definitely felt odd to have Aleksander who – typically for the way he had been raised and the type of surroundings he had grown up in – wasn’t really that supportive, despite he himself having had enough affairs with men and boys, actually understand and accept it.

“I actually knew,” Aleks told him, with a smile. “It wasn’t something big really, it just makes an impression when we’re at the gym and you’re looking at the guys more, or when, obviously, you’ve had a crush on a guy for a whole year now.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Vlad asked quietly, looking up at his friend with wet eyes.

“I was waiting for you to tell me yourself. It’s kind of tasteless and rude to just make the assumption, right.”

Vlad wasn’t sure if he should feel miserable or relieved but it seemed that nothing had changed. And if Aleks had had an idea all this time, then maybe there really was nothing to be worried about.

“You’re really okay with it?” He asked cautiously, looking up at Aleks almost shyly.

Instead of answering, after a second of thought – though it was hard to say how rational it was considering the amount of alcohol affecting his thought process – Aleks leaned down and kissed him. It was rather chaste, giving Vladimir time to pull away, and when he didn’t, Aleks pushed away from the counter where he had been leaning against it and cornered Vladimir against it.

His tongue forced Vlad’s own apart and Vlad’s fingers closed around the edge of the counter when he felt a spark run over his body. People he had kissed before, enough of them really, but it was hard to imagine how he had ever done it when it felt so different, having Aleksander, barechested, grinding into him and push him into the kitchen counter. Fingers tangled into his hair and when Vlad tried to pull away to breathe or make sense of the situation, they tightened, making it impossible to run too far. Aleks’ tongue chased his, teeth pulled on his lip and hungrily grazed along his jaw until Vlad was covered in saliva and fading red splotches.

“I want you so fucking much…” Aleks groaned in his ear, his warm breath tickling his skin and his desperate words filling Vladimir with just as much want. “Do you want to try it?”

“I don’t know…” Vlad hesitated, chewing on his lip. “What about Erzsebet?”

Before Aleks could reply, the two were interrupted by Tomas coming in. That didn’t make the two separate nor did it bother them when Tomas stopped on his way to the sink to take in the sight of them and how obvious the tension in the room was.

Something in the sight of them must’ve struck something else completely because next they knew, Tomas’ eyes were becoming glossy with tears. He sniffled miserably, desperately trying to wipe off the tears and snot from his face until Aleks finally felt bad enough for him to take a step away from Vladimir and wave him over.

“Oh, come on now, don’t be like that,” he said when Tomas walked over and slouched against him. “What are you thinking about?”

“Hedvika…” Tomas replied quietly, “I just miss hugging her so much, I hate to see you guys like this…”

“Oh, no, stop,” Aleksander tried to comfort him, reaching around Vlad for the glass of wine and Sprite on the counter. He helped Tomas drink to calm down and when he had the glass securely in his hands, Aleks reached to grab Vlad’s hand and pull him back in when he noticed him trying to slip away.

He whispered in his ear, something that made Vladimir blush horribly though he was unaware of it as he listened. He felt Aleksander’s lips moving against his skin, the ticklish sensation set his skin aflame.

He ran his tongue along his lips at the thought of all the tasty things Aleks was making him consider. He slipped out of the kitchen when Aleks let go of his wrist after a single gentle squeeze, taking along the second glass of alcohol.

Vladimir guessed he’d need it. His head barely ached anymore.

He left the light in the hall on before walking in after Tomas. Vladimir was on the bed already with another cigarette between his lips and though there was a comment to be made about smoking in bed while drunk off their minds, Aleks found it hard to scold him when Tomas’ lips were on his own. No matter the gender it seemed blondes were all the same – controlling, and when Tomi took the lead and pushed him down on the soft bed, Aleks quickly realized that the sex was definitely not the reason Hedvika had left him.

“Come on,” he urged him, raising his hips off the bed impatiently when Tomas moved between his legs. If it wasn’t the glass he still kept sipping on, Aleksander would’ve pulled him down already. “Show me what you’ve got, you kitty-cat! Show us what Hedvika’s never going to get back!”

There was a second where Aleks got worried that, considering the amount of alcohol they had consumed over the night, neither he nor Tomas would really manage to get it up and in that case he hoped they would all be too drunk to forget all about it the next morning. Luckily, that never happened – he could already feel his jeans becoming tight and his boxers, wet with precum, were rubbing horribly on his sensitive erection.

Tomas dropped the glass in the sheets once he finished its contents in a few large gulps – some of the wine ran down his chin and wet his shirt but that was something he quickly tore off and though he, unlike Vlad, hadn’t given them any signs at all that he would be open to experimenting with a guy, Tomas was awfully eager when he laid himself over Aleksander. He ran his hands along every bit of naked skin he could, sneaking an arm under Aleks’ waist to hold him up when he ground his hips into his, figuring maybe that sex between boys couldn’t be too different from the one he had been having all this time with his girlfriend.

It took him a minute too long to actually get it up though, Aleks really wasn’t surprised, he was just happy that when he pushed his hand in his pants, the few quick touches that never failed to do the trick for him did the same for Tomas. It took him only a second after that to sit up and pull down his jeans and boxers.

Aleks though wasn’t too fond of the idea of being the one on the bottom, not when he still, in his mind, related the position with the worst and best moments he had shared with Vuk. Thus when Tomas tried to kiss him and pull down his pants rather shamelessly, he rolled them around. Tomas wasn’t muscular or even hot by any means but he wasn’t on the skinnier side like Vladimir – he had such soft features, young and boyish and that along with his personality gave Aleks an idea what Hedvika could’ve been missing. He wasn’t there to judge though but rather give them all a good time and if that meant loving three hot people at once rather than just one, then Aleks was sure up for it.

“Vladi,” he looked at his friend, who lay beside Erzsebet and just as hungrily as she watched them roll around in the sheets. “Want to practice now?”

Licking his lips again and taking another large gulp from the already half-empty glass of wine, Vlad left it on the bedside table. The cigarette he gave Erzsebet, who had until then watched the hot scene with glossy eyes, her chest rising and falling sporadically with her deep, quick breaths, her face flushed and her round thighs rubbing desperately together.

Vlad crawled over her before slowly moving to take Aleks’ place over Tomas. All he did then was use his imagination to turn his insecurities and lack of actual experience into a lewd pornographic display. He kissed a trail down Tomas’ chest, felt the blonde’s hand tangle in his hair as his hips raised off the bed when Vlad’s lips grazed the edge of his abdomen. His wet tongue rolled across the skin there before he closed his eyes and, pushed a little by Tomas’ hand, he began gently, lightly, suckling on his balls, just under his already hard, warm member.

Taken off guard by the sudden sensation, Tomi arched off the bed with a breathy but loud moan. Erzsebet’s toes curled at the sound. Noticing that Aleks doesn’t leave her alone and lonely for long. He crawls over to her and she arches when she feels him tugging down on her dress to pull it off completely. Goosebumps cover her skin and her nipples are hard under the lace cover of her bra.

Aleks takes the cigarette from her and digs his hand in Erzsebet’s curls, pulling gently to expose her neck. With one or two quick inhales he finishes the cigarette and leaves it to burn a small black mark into the bedside table before he leans down again to bite at Erzsebet’s neck, bite and suck, not sparing his teeth. He kisses down between her beautiful round mounds and flat stomach, digs his hand under the elastic material of her dress and carelessly tugging it down her thighs and off her legs before leaning down to tug the stringy piece of lace girls like to call underwear down the same path Erzsebet’s dress had gone down, only this time he made sure she watched him pull down her panties with his teeth, a playful grin stretching the corners of his lips while he did so.

He crawled back up and the bed and pushed her down just slightly when he noticed Erzsebet begin to move further up, unsure if she wanted to really roll away from him or get more comfortable. Aleks laid down beside her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders just to make sure Erzsebet didn’t move too far out of reach, before pushing her panties further down her thighs to comfortably move his hand along her inner thigh, doing nothing more than caressing it. He kissed along her shoulder, just barely pulling on the transparent silicone strap of her bra with his teeth. Erzsebet, of course, did nothing more than arch into his touch and, judging by how warm and wet she was when Aleks carefully ran his fingers between her legs. All it took was for him to spread her for the sticky fluids to drip down and, using that most natural lubrication, Aleks held Erzsebet down as he eased one finger into her.

She arched against him, her lips opening around a breathless sound. She tightened around his finger and Aleks couldn’t help but play with those delicious reactions of her, pulling out the third of his digit he already had into her before pushing no more than that back in. his thumb meanwhile though it had rested motionless over her clit now began teasing the wet ball of nerves until Erzsebet was impatiently rolling her hips against his hand, her hands pulling on the sheets and desperately searching for something to hold on to. A third of a finger quickly became two thirds and Aleks continued teasing her until his palm was wet already and Erzsebet was moaning aloud, her beautiful voice filling the room.

It was easy to forget about all the things he wanted to do and let her finish then and there while riding his hand but there were much better things Aleks was looking forward to. He kissed along Erzsebet’s neck, slowing down his hand to let her rest while he tugged down her bra, kissing the sharp line of her jaw before finding her lips. On the bed beside them Tomas was already panting heavily until a very good and naughty swipe of Vlad’s tongue finally made him tip over – with a deep groan Tomas came, arching into Vladimir’s mouth and holding him down to relish in the warmth of his mouth for another few seconds, riding out his first orgasm in months.

Vlad coughed when he pulled away, covering his mouth with a hand – his struggle to gulp down the horrible taste of cum was obvious. Still, he did it like a big boy before looking over at Aleks.

“Do you want to share with the class,” Aleks said quietly, nodding towards Erzsebet, “what you learned?”

The implication was obvious and though Vladimir wasn’t too sure he liked the idea, he very much wanted to experiment.

He put one hand on Erzsebet’s left thigh and Aleks on her right, in turn, to ease them apart before reaching between them again to spread her teasingly with two already wet fingers. She was dripping, the clear juices of her arousal making her thighs wet and glistening and sticky to the touch.

Vladimir’s palms, warm and just a bit clammy, ran along Erzsebet’s thighs slowly while he leaned down. He teased her abdomen with wet kisses. Feeling inspired he ran his tongue in imaginary figures across her skin, edging slowly down until his saliva was dripping between her thighs, mixing with her sticky juices. He teased her exposed clit with the tip of his tongue and her reaction was immediate – Erzsebet arched into Aleksander, trying desperately not to kick out her legs as she nearly screamed, the sound becoming strangled when Aleks squeezed her neck and pulled on her hair strongly enough so Erzsebet was forced to let her head roll back. It was unbearable and became even more so when Vladimir sucked on her clit softly and unhurriedly, his eyes following every reaction of hers, every change in her expression.

He flattened his tongue over her and licked her from top to bottom – the taste was much more different and less subtle than Tomas’, Vlad wasn’t sure he loved it and he hated the thought of pleasuring Erzsebet but he couldn’t deny that he, the virgin, bringing her such pleasure with his tongue alone was a great compliment. It made it easier for him to ignore the taste and wetness as he licked and drooled over her, the tip of his tongue just barely moving inside of Erzsebet and driving her insane.

“Vladimir…” She gasped, her voice making a shiver roll down Vlad’s spine and double his efforts, his hands tightening around her thighs until they left angry red shapes into her skin. “Vlad…!”

Urged on by his name on her lips, Vladimir finally dipped his tongue inside her, but not for long. He pulled away for a second, his breathing quickening, to push a finger in place of his tongue and when his lips found her clit again, Erzsebet nearly screamed, her entire body going rigid.

With a strangled cry, Erzsebet pushed herself off the mattress, her legs in the sudden rush of pleasure wrapping around Vladimir’s middle. Her moan faded slowly into a chain of gasps and hiccups until she collapsed back into the sheets, spent and tired. Her head rolled against Aleks’ shoulder as he mouthed along her neck, soothing her as she basked in the afterglow. He brushed aside her curls damp with perspiration and kissed her temple before looking down at Vlad.

His face was flush, whether with embarrassment or arousal, Aleks couldn’t tell. He watched as Vladimir let Erzsebet’s legs relax on the bed and close, preserving the last bit of modesty really left between them, before he licked his lips.

“You’re really good,” Aleks admitted, stoking Vlad’s already inflated ego.

“Good boy,” Erzsebet agreed, peeking down at Vladimir who landed a shameless slap across her thigh in return. She squealed, “Bastard!”

“Bitch,” he shot back, lacking his usual bite.

Vladimir sat up, brushing the dampness from his chin and lips absently while Aleks moved Erzsebet towards Tomas – he had watched their game through half-lidded eyes, his breathing even and calm. His reaction when Erzsebet crawled over him was one of indifference even until she tried to straddle him – instead of allowing her, Tomas reached to grab a fistful of light curls and pull, eliciting a breathy shocked exhale from Erzsebet. Instead of struggling against it, however, she merely looked down at him, challenge lurking in her reddened eyes, and when Tomas pulled her back on the bed, she merely bit her plump lip – her lipstick was smudged, ruined.

“Condom,” Erzsebet gasped, allowing but also impossible to fight against Tomas’ confidant grip when he flipped her over and, with his hand still in her hair, pushed her down into the mattress. The ticklish sparks of a new, impending orgasm formed low in her belly and she ground her hips down onto the bed, teasingly rubbing her plump, round bottom back against Tomas. A wet drop of cum mixed with saliva rolled down the inside of her thigh, taking along a bead of sweat as she felt him grow and harden against her hot skin.

“We don’t need one,” Tomas sighed, closing his eyes as he rubbed back against Erzsebet. If he were sober, he wouldn’t so bravely initiate anything sexual with anybody, but a few minutes ago he also felt ready to pass out and wouldn’t even imagine being able to get horny or get it up, twice. Did a condom matter at all?

Erzsebet seemed for a moment like she would protest but she forgot what there was to protest about as soon as Tomas used the hand in her hair to pull her upper body up off the bed while the other he wrapped around her waist to pull her back into him. All she could feel was the incessant ache for something she hadn’t felt in months now.

“Will we need one?” Aleks asked, smiling coyly at Vlad.

Vladimir’s face flushed at the suggestion, “Will we…?”

Aleks laughed, gently enough so it wasn’t insulting but also low enough to be innocent. He crawled over to Vlad, like a lion ready to pounce and once he did, Vlad was too weak to fight him. He let Aleksander kiss him, bypassing the gentle nibbles and pecks and going straight for the lewd and wet resemblance of what sex would be like if there were only tongues and teeth involved.

When Aleks pushed him down on the bouncy mattress, Vladimir went obediently, the world around him spinning round as if he were on one extremely fast fair ride. He moaned when Aleks sucked bruises into his neck and struggled none when he made quick work of stripping him – Vlad had until then been the only one still dressed.

“I want to fuck you so bad,” Aleks half-whispered, half-growled into his skin; for a brief moment, Vlad felt a hair too close to actually succumbing to a wave of pleasure that was already dangerously close to washing over him completely and drowning him.

“Do you want to?” He asked, when Vladimir said nothing. He had sat up for a moment to unbuckle his belt and get rid of his jeans and underwear – the room smelled properly of sex and bodily fluids now, cum and sweat and precum.

“Yeah…” Vlad replied, not quietly enough perhaps to hide the note of uncertainty that managed to make its way into his voice despite the arousal. He couldn’t hide that he wanted it, not when Aleksander had pulled off his jeans, but there was more he needed than the physical need to say yes without a pinch of doubt.

Having felt that, Aleks crawled over him again, much slower now, before lowering himself to lay over Vladimir.

“You sure?” He asked, his hot breath caressing Vlad’s lips and cheeks.

“Mhm,” came the soft sound of affirmation, one Aleks followed by rubbing a tight, slow circle into Vlad’s crotch, still covered partially by his boxers.

“Positive?” He asked again, running the flat of his tongue across the edge of Vladimir’s jaw; his voice was merely a breath, his words an exhale that brought goosebumps to Vlad’s skin. “We don’t have to do all of it. You can just show me how good your mouth is…Or I can show you so many other tricks…”

“Is that what you want?”

“If I have to be honest…My only fantasy right now includes you and your legs around my legs or pointing at the ceiling.”

Vlad couldn’t help but smile; the words sounded so deceivingly honest. His body already felt like a puddle on the sheets, heavy and aroused, a victim of gravity.

“You’re so romantic,” he gasped, arching against Aleks.

“I don’t see your panties dropping,” Aleksander joked though that was something he was already working on, tugging down Vladimir’s boxers until they were off completely.

A strangled yelp distracted them for a moment, just as Aleks had leaned down for another minute of passionate making out, and both of them looked to the side at Erzsebet and Tomas who had just pushed her face, covered in black splotches of eyeliner and mascara, red lipstick and ruined eyeshadow, into the sheets.

“You want it like that?” Aleks asked, hiding a grin in the skin of Vladimir’s neck. “Or do you want it like this more?”

“This way…” Vlad admitted, swallowing hard. Never in his life would he have guessed how turned on watching Erzsebet being fucked like the dog she was would make him.

“Give it a good lick then,” Aleks whispered, sitting up again before moving to straddle Vladimir’s lean chest. “Get to it, love. I know I don’t have to teach you…”

It was only a little bit different though – Vladimir actually really cared about making Aleks purr, cared about being good. Playful wet licks and kisses over the glistening red head of his cock became careful swirls of his tongue down the shaft that made Aleks breath a little quicker and bit his lip. Looking down at Vlad he was unable to hide his grin when their eyes met – despite never having done it before, Vlad managed to fool him so well that he was an expert. He let a generous amount of saliva dribble down his erection before wrapping his lips around him and taking him into his mouth so far into his throat until only the crease between his brows actually gave away his discomfort.

Meanwhile, Aleks brought two of his own fingers to his mouth and just as well wet them, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back before reaching behind himself and tease Vladimir’s own cock. He felt a dribble of precum slide over his knuckles when he gave it a couple of slow pulls and felt Vlad twisting under him, trying to rock his hips into the pleasant tightness of his hand. Aleks didn’t let him enjoy it for long – while he did like the little moans around his member, he could help but wonder what other sounds Vlad was capable of when he touched lower, pass his balls tight with the need to cum already. When his wet fingers caressed over his hole, hot and tight, Vlad couldn’t hold back his surprised moan anymore – his head hit the mattress and his back arched as much as Aleks’ weight could allow.

“I’m going to finish, I’m going to finish, stop…!” He gasped desperately, when Aleks pushed inside the tip of his finger before pulling it out, teasing his rim with its pad before stretching it with two wet digits and then one again, burying it as deep as the awkward position could allow him to.

Unable to contain his own impatience, Aleks moved between Vlad’s thighs again and while his friend caught his breath gave a few rushed pulls on his cock, feeling how easy it was with how wet his skin already was from the spit and precum. He sneaked a hand under Vlad’s shoulders, felt his hands and legs automatically go around him, just as impatient as Aleks was and just as desperate.

Vlad groaned, biting his lip and digging his fingers into Aleks’ shoulders when he pushed in finally, pushing back into him and letting his legs fall as open as they could to make the intrusion less painful. The burn and steady, constant ache were dulled considerably by the weed and alcohol but instead of making him feel good, the heat made Vladimir want to vomit. The pressure so deep inside of him was confusing but nonetheless incredibly maddening – harsh but ticklish, as light as a feather.

When Aleks bottomed out, he couldn’t help but want to kiss him – Vladi’s flushed face and neck made colorful already by the hickeys and bites, his heaving chest and swollen lips. He caressed Vladimir’s neck, the exposed skin of his throat and shoulders, and while holding onto the messy sheets, Aleks moved his hips slowly, shallow, experimental thrusts. Something told him that, though he maybe wouldn’t be able to cum, he wouldn’t be against fucking Vlad till the break of dawn, as far away as that was.

“Where do you want it?” Tomas asked from beside them, breathless and flushed all over with the effort, just as Aleks was beginning to pick up a bit of speed and force, urged on by Vlad’s steadily rising voice and the tightness of his legs pulling him deeper with every thrust.

He slowed down his desperate thrusts and pulled out of Erzsebet, leaving her swollen pussy wet and empty. She was panting, her skin covered in a thin layer of sweat. It seemed for a moment that she hadn’t heard the question or if she had, hadn’t realized what she was being asked, until she rolled over slowly to look at Tomas, who already had a hand around himself and was rubbing his length slowly, steadily. Her tight bra had left deep, red indents across her damp skin of straight lines and lace flowers.

Erzsebet lifted herself off the bed, not without effort, and just as Tomas was picking up the speed of his hand, the movements eased and made quicker by the sticky fluids still covering his cock, she lay down on her stomach in front of him, her perky ass sticking up naughtily. She batted her lashes as she flattened her tongue over the head, wrapped her lips around it as if it were a lollypop, and all it took then for Tomas to cum for the second time that night in someone else’s hot mouth was a well-timed, loving suck.

It was the sight of the thick ropes of cum, painting Erzsebet’s lips before rolling down Tomas’ hand and dripping onto the sheets that made Vladimir cum – he bit his lip, clamping his mouth tightly shut as the pleasure seized him but that wasn’t enough to stop him from voicing the intense pleasure that nearly ripped him apart when it came rushing over him. His clammy hands pulled on the sheets as his mouth fell open again, his chest rising and falling with each erratic breath.

Aleks let him ride out his orgasm, his cock buried as deep inside him as it could go. His own muscles tensed, the tightness around him almost too painful to bear all of a sudden, until he too, like Tomas, collapsed over Vladimir when his body relaxed, overwhelmed by the afterglow.

He felt, though briefly, a gentle hand brush away his hair from his damp forehead before a pair of lips covered his and fed him the odd, bitter taste of cum. It was a brief kiss made dirty by the way Erzsebet rolled her tongue into his mouth and he let her, lulled into a state of bliss by the softness of her lips.

Before Aleks could return the favor. Erzsebet had passed out already.

She was woken up by the buzzing of a phone and when Erzsebet opened her eyes, she couldn’t help but squeeze them shut again, the light from the screen too much for her to bear all of a sudden. She reached over to the nightstand, unaware of her surroundings, to see who was texting her. All Erzsebet managed to make out through the wetness in her irritated eyes was Gilbert’s name on the screen and that was all she needed to drop the phone back down on the table and forget all about it.

_Call me when you can, we need to talk_ , the text had read.

Groggy at best, she rolled around when the sound of a door opening caught her attention and when she opened her eyes again, Erzsebet saw Aleks walking out from what she guessed had to be a bathroom, considering his wet skin and damp hair. The room, unfamiliar to her at first, was dim, as if it wasn’t yet day but it wasn’t quite night either.

“Hey,” Aleksander said when he noticed she was somewhat awake. He had a towel around his middle, another sign of a recent shower. “Did you sleep well?”

Erzsebet had just opened her mouth to answer when the horrible, overwhelming urge to throw up suddenly struck her. The horrible taste in her mouth coupled with the headache quickly got her rolling over and off the bed. Her world spun, once, twice, until Erzsebet was falling to her knees – by some great miracle, right in front of her was the toilet.

“There, there,” she could faintly hear Aleks comforting her, stepping behind her and helping her hold back her hair as she coughed out the contents of her stomach. “It’s okay, you’re okay. Come on, stand up, come over here, it’s okay…”

He helped her back up and held her when she stumbled. Erzsebet barely understood what happened after that, all she knew was that somehow Aleks managed to make her lean over the bathtub so he could wash her whole body with lukewarm water, careless if he wet her hair. It was only then that she noticed, or rather remembered, that she was naked – even her bra had been taken off, perhaps before she had passed out earlier.

“I’m sorry,” she whined, rinsing out her mouth before taking a few small gulps from the water running into her mouth from the showerhead when Aleks directed it towards her ghostly pale face.

“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her gently, letting her sit down for a moment on the tiled floor as her body cooled down to flush the toilet and hang the showerhead back up.

Aleks helped Erzsebet wash her face more thoroughly after that so her makeup wouldn’t leave any more stains on the sheets and pillows now that it was wet and dripping down her face. After that he let her skin dry on its own while helping her back into bed.

“What time is it?” Tomas groaned when he noticed them walking around. He was still half-asleep, lying partially covered by the duvet beside Vlad who was nestled behind him, tightly wrapped in the sheets and even snoring quietly.

“It’s early,” Aleks told him, quietly, before leaning down to kiss his cheek wetly, “go back to sleep.”

“Hedvika…?”

“She’s not home, didn’t come back. Go back to sleep.”

Tomas was out almost immediately after that with a small huff. Meanwhile, Erzsebet was already climbing back into bed behind Vlad. He had hogged all the sheets so it was necessary to cuddle up to him, that’s what she told herself, before Aleks too laid down beside her, covering both of them with the thin cover. Much to her dismay, he left her legs uncovered, but Erzsebet was already dozing off before she could whine about it and make him cover her up.

She was fast asleep again in minutes, nestled between Vlad’s back and Aleks’ chest, with only a taste of the horrible headache that would wait for her when she woke up for good. Erzsebet would think about that and all the rest then.


	4. The Right Way of Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you you could expect an epilogue :D Okay, I'm finally done with this adorable relationship square, I can happily move on but they most definitely will not leave my heart and I'll be writing more with these characters happily, I just love how this turned out. I have nothing more to say, thank you for stopping by and stay tuned for more c: <3

They got up at noon and ordered pizza. Tomas threw up as soon as he got out of bed and then tried to shower while Vlad brushed his teeth before going to look for painkillers. Even Aleks didn’t feel too good and he had had his fair share of hangovers.

Erzsebet couldn’t remember much from the night before but waking up naked in bed with three other naked men spoke for itself. The embarrassment hurt more than the headache could and she dressed quickly, hating herself for the choice of clothes – with or without them, she felt naked.

They ate in silence, with Aleks having to coax Erzsebet when she protested, fearing that she would throw up as soon as she took a bite of the greasy dough. Apparently, eating something greasy and drinking nothing but plain water helped more than aspirin ever could.

Erzsebet was the first to leave that day, refusing Aleksander’s offer to drive her home after stopping by to pick up his car. All she really wanted was to go home, wash herself as thoroughly as she could and forget about everything that happened.

It was already early that afternoon when she walked out of Tomas’ apartment building; her legs shook and her toes ached, stuffed into the tight shoes. Tomas had told her how to get to the nearest metro stop but he couldn’t have been worse with the directions. Erzsebet was surrounded by small yellow buildings, trees and streets.

She hadn’t even walked for a full five minutes until she decided to stop, take off her shoes and continue barefoot down the wet pavement. She had just reached into her purse to take out a cigarette when her phone rang.

“Listen,” Erzsebet said, harsh and impatient, her mood made foul by the horrible headache and the ache in her legs and lower back, “if you call me one more time or text me one more time, I’ll destroy you, you bastard, do you hear me, I…!”

“Wow, okay,” the person calling her said quickly and to her surprise and shame, it wasn’t Gilbert calling. “I’m sorry, guess someone’s, like, I don’t know, gotten up from the wrong side of the bed today…Is it allowed to call later, or…?”

“No, no, no, Feliks,” Erzsebet exclaimed, “I’m sorry, I thought it was someone else.”

“Well, I guessed,” Feliks, a long-time friend of hers, reassured her hesitantly, “but you did give me a scare, I thought I did something…What’s up? What’s up with all those Instagram posts and selfies I’m seeing from last night?”

“I…Look, so many things happened yesterday, I can’t explain it all over the phone.”

“Are you okay?” A note of worry filled his voice when Feliks asked after a short pause, “Did something bad happen? Where are you right now?”

“No, no, it’s fine, I…Hey, um, Feliks? Can you come pick me up? I’m…supposed to be somewhere around the EU, the station, but…”

“I got you. Don’t say another word, be there in twenty minutes, half an hour max. Just let me see if Tolys’ left the car and I’m on my way.”

“Thanks,” Erzsebet smiled, “love you.”

“Oh, don’t get all emotional with me!” Feliks laughed. “Love you, Elżuniu, see you in a bit.”

She saw Gilbert’s text when she hung up but Erzsebet hesitated, wondering if she should text back or even call. She could tell by the texts he was worried, she even had missed calls…She debated with herself while she smoked what to do.

In the end of her discussion with her own self, Erzsebet texted him one thing, _Don’t ever text or call again._

  


Needless to say, they never spoke of that night again and as per usual they rarely texted each other. The difference though was enormous albeit unnoticeable to them – the change was graduate and a month later, things were definitely not the same as they had been before their night out.

The truth hid behind the little things, the casualties, in their routine. One afternoon, after one of his late afternoon mandatory courses, Aleksander had sat outside in the university yard to catch up with some colleagues over a cigarette. He was caught up in the conversation but even so, as soon as he noticed Tomas walking out of the building with his backpack over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but call out to him and wave.

“You know each other?” Drazen, who stood on his left, asked in bewilderment, watching as Aleks hastily stubbed out his cigarette and got his things, ready to leave. A few feet away, Tomas was already waiting, kicking the pebbles in his feet rather bashfully while he did.

“Yeah,” Aleks nodded, “Tomi’s an amazing guy, we’ve been friends for a while now. See you tomorrow, here, for a smoke before class, right?”

“Wait, why are you in such a hurry?” Enis, another one of Aleks’ closer friends, tried to stop him, “Just call him over, weren’t we going to go get something to eat…?”

“Some other time, see you guys!”

The two watched as Aleksander skipped across the yard towards Tomas and hug him briefly before throwing an arm around his shoulders as the two began walking towards the exit. They seemed like old friends, best friends, though it was no secret that Aleksander very rarely even interacted with Tomas, let alone actually went out with him. Seeing them suddenly so close without any actual reason was baffling.

“Has something happened that we missed…?” Drazen asked, staring at Aleksander and Tomas as they walked and talked loudly.

“I don’t know, man,” Enis shook his head, “but I really wonder if it’s for the better or not.”

Meanwhile, Aleksander was already offering to give Vlad a call to see if he was free to go and get something to eat with them. The weather had begun to get warmer over the past few days and the days became longer. Being outside after spending the whole day in a stuffy lecture hall, smelling of wood varnish and dust, was a relief.

Vladimir showed up a few minutes after Aleks and Tomas had sat down with a bag of pretzels and three large gyros beside them on the damp bench. Like Aleksander, he appeared to be in such a good mood that he nearly ran to them when he spotted them. He looked around just before he reached the bench and when he made sure that they were all alone in that part of the park, Vlad finally crossed the distance between them, gave Aleksander a tight hug and right after that, a kiss.

“With chicken meat and without garlic sauce,” Aleks told him while chewing, offering Vladimir his gyro, wrapped tightly in tinfoil and plastic. “Just like you like it.”

“You’re awesome,” Vladimir sighed, unwrapping his food before taking a big bite, “I was just about to go home after my English lesson and I was already starving. What’s up Tomi? Sorry for not giving you a hug.”

“Hey,” Tomas laughed, “don’t worry about it. How have you been?”

“Perfect,” Vladimir replied confidently. “Couldn’t really be better, passed my last exam last week.”

“It’s a crime to have exams so early,” Aleksander complained. “And our university’s session hasn’t even started yet. How many exams did you even have, four? Well, I have seven, with two projects and a practical exam for one of my facultative classes after the twentieth!”

“You’ll do fine, you’re smarter than you look,” Vlad reassured him before turning back to Tomas. “And how have you been? We haven’t seen each other in, what, two weeks?”

Tomas shrugged, “I’m fine, I guess. Nothing new.”

“What’s up with Hedvika?”

“Oh, we spoke a while ago but she…moved out. I haven’t really seen her or talked to her since, so…”

His phone rang and Aleksander, who sat right beside him, leaned over to catch a glimpse of the screen – Tomas though turned around so he wouldn’t see who could be calling.

“Hey,” he said, “what’s up? What, tonight? Sure…No, I’m out, with Aleks and Vlad. Yeah, I can be there in, like, an hour or two? Awesome, you order something to eat then. Alright, see you later then. Bye…”

He hung up and when he did, he had a little, cocky smile on his face. Aleksander couldn’t help but laugh.

“Wow, look who turned into a player! I told you, I told you all you needed was to break up with that, Hedvika…”

“Who’s the lucky lady?” Vladimir asked impatiently. “Do we know her, you never said anything!”

“Guys, there’s no lucky lady, come on! It’s not that. I’m not seeing anyone like that, it’s just…”

“You’ve got a friend with special benefits?” Aleks offered with a wink.

Tomas blushed, “Well, I don’t know…something like that.”

“There’s no something like that, it’s either you fuck or you don’t. If you start watching movies, holding hands and having sleepovers, make sure to tell us right away, ‘cus knowing you, you’ll probably mess up and ruin your chances.”

“Ha, ha,” Tomas said drily, finishing his gyro in two or three quick bites before throwing the packaging in the near bin and reaching for his backpack. “It was really great seeing you again, guys, thanks for the food too, Aleks. We should really do this again soon.”

“Oh, no,” Aleks complained theatrically, “he’s a call boy now! You’re doing it _wrong_ , Tomi, you should be the one calling them and they should come running, not the other way around!”

“Oh, shut up!” Tomas laughed, waving them goodbye while he strode down the paved path towards the exit of the park.

He caught the bus home instead of the metro so he could waste a bit of time and by the time he was walking towards his building, the sun had already begun to slowly set. It quickly got chilly without it but it took Tomas no more than five minutes to walk from the bus station to his apartment building. No more than another five minutes of waiting and Erzsebet was already walking down the other side of the street, from the direction of the metro station. In her hands, she carried two pizza boxes.

“Hey,” she smiled when she saw him. She was dressed casually, as if she was just coming from classes herself.

“Hi,” Tomas greeted back.

They hugged but the embrace was rather awkward still. After the night in Tomas’ apartment, Erzsebet had been the first to leave but it hadn’t been even a full week later when she texted him. He had never lied when he had said that he disliked Erzsebet – dislike wasn’t really the right word either. Erzsebet had always been cocky, boisterous, where Hedvika had always possessed some air of royalty around her despite being nothing but ordinary. The major difference, however, was that Hedvika had always been cold – Erzsebet burned.

They had been texting ever since that night at his place, had met each other for sex two, maybe three times – now would be the fourth. They walked upstairs to the apartment and left the pizza for later; Erzsebet took a shower first and while Tomas took his turn in the bathroom, she went into the kitchen to open them each a bottle of sider. She walked back to the bedroom with the two glass bottles in hand, wet with condensation, in her tight-fitted black boxers alone. Her hair, still wet along the ends, stuck to her back and shoulders.

Erzsebet was the second to shower later while Tomas opened another two bottles and opened the boxes of now cold pizza. Strawberry Moon had ended already, a whole month ago, and he wasn’t a big fan of Stolen Life. Undercover would be up though in half an hour, if Erzsebet decided to stay long enough to watch with him, maybe she could even stay the night, he had enough room to spare.

The moment those thoughts filled his mind, Tomas froze mid-bite. Where had that even come from? Was he sane, insane? They had decided after not one but many conversations that there couldn’t and shouldn’t be anything more but sex between them, so why was he suddenly imagining them in the most casual situations. He didn’t even like Erzsebet like that.

She walked into the living room with just a towel wrapped around her.

“I didn’t know what to get you,” Erzsebet said, sitting down on the couch beside him and picking up a slice of pizza for herself. “That’s why I got two.”

“I’m thinking of becoming a vegetarian,” Tomas told her, softly, feeling somewhat awkward talking to her after all those thoughts he had just had.

“Are you?”

“Mhm…But not vegan though because there’s a huge difference. Um, do you have any plans for tomorrow or tonight? Because I was thinking, I mean, Undercover’s on TV again and…”

Erzsebet began to chew slower as Tomas’ words began to sink in. She left her slice on the cardboard box and dusted her hands, swallowed down her bite with a gulp of sider and looked back at Tomas.

“Tomi,” she said, shaking her head, “this wasn’t part of the deal.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Oh, cut it out. Look…Us being lonely really doesn’t mean we can have something…”

“No, it’s just…I didn’t mean _that_ , just that it’s getting late and it would be better if you spend the night.”

“Tomas…”

The pity in her soft voice was so similar to Hedvika’s that it shut Tomas up immediately, struck by emotions that were still too painful to get over.

“Just forget I ever asked,” he said after a moment, forcing on a smile. “Thanks for the pizza. I’ll go get dressed…”

“Tomas,” Erzsebet stopped him, just as he was standing up.

“I _am_ lonely,” he admitted, suddenly, and saying that aloud definitely hurt more than he thought he would. “And I hate it. I’m not in love with you, just because we’ve slept with each other once or twice. But I just thought that…it wouldn’t hurt to be lonely with someone else. If you’re worried that I’ll say I love you after a few dates, you’re wrong.”

“I wouldn’t mind watching Undercover with you,” Erzsebet said, looking up at him; her eyes were smiling, bright and reassuring. Tomas had always seen her as nothing more but an evil, arrogant woman who only crushed and made others miserable, and seeing her now made him feel warmer than Hedvika ever had made him feel.

Yeah – maybe he wasn’t in love with Erzsebet. But right now, he really did love her.

“I can even stay over,” she promised, “if you give me a tee shirt to sleep in.”

Tomas barely contained his joy; he smiled, nodding eagerly, “I’ll go get you one right now. Do you want shorts too?”

They spent the night watching the entire first season of Undercover, having sex on the couch and the coffee table between episodes or during the more boring scenes, complaining about exams, their exes, and telling each other secrets. Erzsebet slept on the couch when it was time to go to bed and though Tomas had to spend another night in bed, alone, he felt anything but lonely. He wouldn’t have slept any better even with Erzsebet cuddling beside him.

  


Meanwhile, a neighbourhood and a half away, Aleksander and Vladimir had no such problems; sleeping on the couch or separated was not an option.

That afternoon, after Tomas had left, they had spent a good while gossiping about him actually and sharing theories of who his new friend could be and why she was such a secret. Vlad supposed that he was hiding a boyfriend but Aleks had disapproved of that idea rather quickly. One blowjob from a virgin was hardly strong enough to cook spaghetti, was his amazing argument.

Nevertheless, they didn’t spend the whole afternoon and evening discussing Tomas. It was Friday, they both had the Saturday free, at least until the early afternoon. They bought beer and junk food and Vlad called home to let his parents know he would be staying the night at Aleksander’s.

“Oh, boys,” Aleks’ dad greeted them when he saw them coming in. He seemed to be getting ready to leave for work, Aleks had said he had the night shift today at the bank where he worked as a security guard. “How’s it going? Vladko, haven’t seen you come over in a long time.”

“Exams and other dumb stuff,” Vlad shrugged, toeing off his shoes. Aleksander’s dad was a big guy, more than two times Vlad’s own size and as strong as bull – Vlad had always felt awkward and intimidated when coming over and now that he was there as Aleks’ boyfriend…the pressure was double the usual amount.

“Pfu,” Mr Balakov waved a hand, going over to put on his jacket and shoes, “studying, studying, your heads will explode! Like you’ve gotten any smarter.”

“Well, here we are then!” Aleks said, walking inside to the kitchen to put away their beers and snacks. “No more studying. We’re done for the week.”

“God forbid you overstudy!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“You want to know a secret?” Vlad said, stepping into the kitchen, listening as the front door opened, shut and then catching the sound of the keys turning in the keyhole to lock it. “I’m really scared of your dad.”

Aleks laughed, “Seriously? No way! He’s a total sweetheart.”

“Yeah, and he’ll probably fuck us up both if he hears you’re dating a guy…”

“Hey…Don’t even joke about that.”

“My bad…” Vlad apologized, sincerely, hoping that he hadn’t ruined the mood accidentally. Hearing that must’ve made Aleks happy because he grinned and leaned over to give him a quick smooch.

“Dad or no dad, I really love you,” he said, “you dork.”

Tatjana interrupted them just as they had sat down in the living room. She came in like a hurricane, talking loudly over the phone and waving her hands around until she saw them. Vlad didn’t have enough time to really sit away from Aleks but it wasn’t as if Aleksander hid his relationships from his sister. When push came to shove, Tatjana and Aleks had their backs, albeit complaining all the way.

Even though Aleks never cared what Tanja saw him do – he had done almost all there was to do in front of his sister or in her company – the odd, pouty look she gave him and Vlad wasn’t very pleasant.

“You didn’t say Tanja would be here,” Vlad said quietly, raising a brow at Aleks.

“I didn’t know she would be here,” Aleks hissed, before looking towards his sister, “Ey, Tatjano! Weren’t you supposed to be out tonight?”

“You can’t kick me out whenever you want to, I live here too, you know,” Tatjana yelled back from the kitchen. “But don’t worry, I _am_ going out. I’m staying the night at Idriza’s, just so you know, so you can be as loud as you fairies want.”

Aleks grabbed one of the couch cushions and threw it at her just as Tatjana ducked into the kitchen, “Run out of here, you bitch, I’ll pull your hair out strand by strand, do you hear me!”

He leaned back into the couch, crossing his arms with a huff of disbelief; his face had become bright red.

“Hey,” Vlad said, trying to get his attention. When Aleks looked at him, he smiled. “Your sister’s a total bitch, you know that.”

“Oh, do I know that,” Aleks nodded, though he wasn’t in the mood to smile at all. “Let’s just start the stupid movie…We can even play something later, WOW or whatever…”

Vladimir’s smile didn’t falter. He leaned in, closing his eyes and moving to kiss him but, surprisingly, Aleks turned away so that Vlad’s lips only touched his cheek.

Vladimir stilled, his smile dropped. He looked at Aleks as he chewed nervously on his bottom lip, quietly, while Aleks only threw him a sideway, guilty glance, before reaching up to bring him closer again. He kissed him slowly, with so much tongue that Vladimir felt warmth and electricity running down his spine with every roll of it in his mouth.

“You guys are totally gross,” Tanja said, walking back into the living room and going over to the coffee tablet o get a handful of chips from the bowl Aleks had left there.

“Hey, Tanja,” Vlad told her, not even bothering to sit away from Aleksander, “have fun tonight. Don’t let anyone bite, too hard.”

“Go get railed,” Tanja spat, chewing on her mouthful of chips while she stomped off angrily.

They watched an episode of Devil’s Throat before Vlad insisted that they watch Cherry of the cake on TV. Aleks wasn’t that big of a fan but Vladimir had been wanting to watch the episode with the blonde influencer kid that boiled meat in a pan.

Tanja went out just before the show ended so the two could finally, comfortably and confidently, pay each other more personal attention. Aleksander even turned off the light in the living room so the only light came from the kitchen and the TV. He walked back to the couch slowly, like a stalking predator, before sitting down in Vladi’s lap and trapping him between himself and the backrest of the couch.

“Wait, wait,” Vlad told him, sinking back into the sofa when their kissing grew into groping and Aleks’ naughty hand reached down to palm his crotch. “We can’t do it on the couch…”

“Why not?” Aleks asked, biting his lip and running the tip of his nose over Vlad’s jaw and then down the column of his neck. “Oh, if you’re worried that we’ll do it _only_ on the couch, don’t. We’ll do it on the coffee table…then on the kitchen counter, against the window. We’ll do it in the shower…then, before cuddling and going to sleep, we’ll play in bed. Hm? How does that sound?”

Each promise was followed by a ticklish, wet kiss along his neck while Aleks’ hands roamed under his shirt, making it ride farther up.

“You’re horrible,” Vlad laughed.

They switched places before kissing impatiently again – Aleks always loved it when Vladimir was on top and though Vlad was rather whiny about it, he couldn’t disagree that he felt a huge satisfaction whenever he made Aleks moan or writhe in pleasure, or when his hands held him just a bit tighter, when he lost it from the pleasure.

Aleks was the first to go take a shower later when they were done. Vlad had just wiped himself off with a wet wipe and now sat watching the next episode of the series while drinking from his can of beer in large gulps.

They didn’t end up doing it on every flat surface in the apartment but they came close to it before becoming too tired and sore. After playing twice more – once on the armchair facing the window and again in bed, like Aleks had wanted – they showered, ate, chased by a sudden pang of drunken hunger, and finally found their way under the covers. One thing bothered Vlad though despite how pleasantly tired he felt and he couldn’t hide his concern from Aleks.

“We’re going to have to get up early tomorrow,” he mentioned, cuddling closer to Aleksander.

“Why?” Aleks raised a brow. “I want to sleep in tomorrow, it’s so late right now.”

And he yawned for good measure, just to show how tired he was.

“Well, I don’t want your dad or Tanja to come home and…find us cuddling in bed together…”

Vlad admitted that shyly but he sounded so whiny and concerned that Aleks couldn’t help but look at him again.

“They won’t just storm in,” he reassured him. “What’s worrying you…?”

“I don’t know,” Vlad mumbled. “I’m just…I just feel dumb about your dad. Forget about it.”

“What about my dad? What does he have to do with anything?”

“No, no, nothing. I just…I mean…” His voice became as quiet as a whisper, “I kind of feel uncomfortable that we’re dating but we can’t say a word about it.”

“Well, I’m not going to lie to you…We can’t really tell my dad, I mean, he’s not the most accepting and understanding person on the planet. And a lot of people are like that but you know how it is here. One day we’ll…go live in Holland? I don’t know, but why are you even worried about it?”

“No reason…”

“Are you sure? Look, Vladi, I don’t want you to worry about a thing, alright? We have awesome friends and you don’t even have to care about Tanja, she doesn’t give a fuck who I date. We’re together, alright? I promise.”

Vladimir didn’t seem convinced, maybe he wouldn’t ever be, but for a moment he was comfortable and warm and when Aleks kissed his cheek and hugged him, it all felt too good to think about nonsense.

  


They went out the next morning to get breakfast and when they stopped in the park to get coffee from the vending machine, they saw Tomas walking hand in hand with Erzsebet.

The two were coming from the opposite end of the path and when they noticed Aleks and Vlad walking towards them, their cheerful laughter ceased, turning into shocked silence. Erzsebet even blushed, as if they had caught her in a very embarrassing situation. She quickly let go of Tomas’ hand and began walking a step away from him, as if the two hadn’t been all over each other a moment ago.

“Well,” Aleks said, as surprised as Vlad was and as speechless as Tomas and Erzsebet, “hi there.”

“Hey,” Tomas mumbled.

“Hi…” Erzsebet, just as quietly, added.

“Do you guys have time for a coffee, or…?” Vlad asked, pointing over at the vending machine. “We can hang out some other time maybe, since you two are a thing now…”

“Oh, we’re not dating,” Erzsebet quickly denied but didn’t elaborate what they were exactly, too stunned to make up an excuse.

“Maybe we can hang out some other time,” Tomas offered. His own face was already tomato red, knowing how he had left the guys yesterday. Neither Aleks nor Vlad were dumb, he could tell that they had already understood just why Erzsebet had been so happy before noticing them and where exactly they were coming back from.

“Sure…See you then, guys, we’ll keep in touch…”

“Oh, yeah, definitely…”

They went their own ways, Tomas and Erzsebet in silence while Vlad and Aleks could only send them curious looks and each other questioning, stunned glances on their way to the vending machine.


End file.
